#EVEN IF IT'S JUST FANART I WILL PASS ON TO THE NEXT LIFE HAPPILY

[astaroth1357]

Ok but like, what if MC's fandom starts to make ships with MC and the guys. Just think about the ship wars, the fancams, the fanarts, the absolute CHAOS when the brothers find out. It would be even worse if they start shipping MC with the undatables, one day everything is normal and the next day there are ship wars fighting over MC x Barbatos vs MC x Solomon (who are both very smug about it)

The MC's Fanclub are… Shippers?!

Perhaps… The italics blurb has been fulfilling its greater purpose all along…? Perhaps in its state of existential angst, it has in fact developed a plot of its own… An arc of introspection and self-discovery in which its own longing for purpose has forged a meaningful identity… It now has… a story…

Lucifer

As if they couldn't get any MORE frustrating…

He's not an otaku. He's not a part of ship culture. He's not even sure why anyone would care about who dates who around this school, but apparently it's a big deal to some people...

He only became aware of their interest in him and the MC's relationship through some very… subtle clues…

Like the groups that would follow them around in the hallways with their phones out.

Or the multitude of fan rumors about their relationship that Satan spams him with from time to time just to irritate him.

"MC refused hug from Luci in halls today!! Are they bout breakup??? 🥺"

"Tots got pic of kiss today!! Relationship upgrade??"

"IS ARE MC+LUCIFER SECET LVRS?!? PLEASE RESPOND"

It only got worse after he found out the MC gets shipped out a loooooot….

If he had to pick his least favorite ship, it'd be MC x Mammon. He can kind of see it with any of his other brothers (admittedly, Levi is also a little mystifying) but the idea of them ending up with Mammon makes his skin crawl...

He once found a drawing of the MC and Mammon in an… explicit position in one of the classrooms and he was so disgusted that he wouldn’t even touch it. He just set fire to the paper outright. Disgusting...

Mammon

Shipping, eh…? More money making opportunities!

Has some passing idea of what shipping is from Levi and, from what he knows of it, shippers eat cutesy couples stuff right up!! If all he's got to do to make bank is to look all couple-y around the MC then sounds like a win-win to him!

He'll happily pose for a photo or two (paid in advance) of him throwing his arm around the MC or something. Want him to hold their hand? Sure thing!

But since this is still Mammon we're talking about, the second MC actually starts getting into any of it he'll still turn into a blushy, stuttery mess...

For WEEKS the headline picture on so many of their fans' blogs was an image of him turning beet red while the MC kissed him on the cheek. (A fan really got their money's worth there... 😏)

Though he doesn’t exactly like the MC getting shipped with other people, he'll still totally sell pictures of any of them together. He almost paid off an entire credit card with the money he got from the t-shirt sales of the MC and Satan!

If he had to point to one ship he doesn't like it's either MC x Asmo or MC x Levi. His opinion, but Asmo won't treat them right and they could do waaay better than a shut-in. Like him. Ship the MC with just the Great Mammon, got it?

Leviathan

… Lowkey super active in the MC shipping community but is a self-shipper to the extreme.

Like, he never uses his real name on anything (and would probably die from embarrassment if anyone ever found out) but a lot of their fans probably know a couple of his aliases.

He does everything from mod forums, runs a couple blogs, even anonymously posts his own work of him and MC that are totally not his secret fantasy dates or AU versions of themselves, shaddup.

It’s a lot easier for him to keep his involvement secret because he’s hardly at RAD, but the few times he does show up he tries to keep an eye out for anybody prowling for pictures so he can get in a good pose and save the image later.

Mind you, his version of a “good pose” rarely gets more spicy than linking pinkies, but even then he’s still lit up a Christmas Tree throughout.

Naturally, he’s also not a big fan of any ships that aren’t just him and MC and he can find a reason to be jealous at almost anything. But he keeps a special corner of hate for MC x Mammon and MC x Diavolo. Like, the first one doesn’t even need an explanation but MC x Diavolo?? Really??? Do those two even talk?? (please, please, please make sure they never actually talk because a guy like him versus literal royalty? He’d lose MC for sure….!! 😫)

Satan

He hates to actually agree with Lucifer on something, but their fans are starting to get out of hand...

Knows what shipping is in concept, he may have done it once or twice to characters in his books, but he was kind of surprised how it could evolve into such a… group activity?

He was pretty quick to pick up that the MC’s fans had a bit more interest in them together than they did when they both were apart…

I mean, those hideous shirts that Mammon was pedaling were kind of a dead giveaway…

Considering he finds their fanclub all rather annoying, even without their bizarre interest in his love life, when they started actively meddling with him and the MC he was ready to smash some heads.

No. He will not stop for pictures. No. What things they do together is none of your business. No. He has zero interest in seeing your explicit fanart and if you don’t start running that will be the last question you ever ask.

He DOES, however, appreciate the cringy “annoy Lucifer” ammo. They could keep that up for a lifetime... 😏

He doesn’t have a least favorite ship because he doesn’t care about any of this, leave him alone. (That’s a lie, it’s MC x Lucifer. He pokes fun at Lucifer, but he can’t stand it either. Big shock, I know 🙄).

Asmodeus 

Oh he is shamelessly a part of the community, are you kidding?? 

He could practically call “Shipping the MC” one of his favorite pastimes. He’ll openly gossip with their fanclub about who they’ve been with, who they’re seeing, who’s got a chance, etc… He lives for this shit!

He’s the only person who knows that Levi is also in the community and what his aliases are (not because he told him, but because Levi’s not as subtle as he thinks he is… Who else would call themselves “SupremeRuri666” and speak mostly in outdated chat lingo?) but he doesn’t out him because he thinks his very obvious crush is kind of cute. 

Plus, Levi needs the outlet waaaay more than him…

Doesn’t stop him from constantly trolling him and getting into arguments over who the MC would be better with though (the two are “virtual nemeses” as far as Levi is concerned).

Appreciates all forms of expression that comes out of the community (especially the saucy kind 😏) and will happily feed into his own shippers without a care in the world.

Truthfully, Asmo will say that there isn’t a ship he doesn’t like but if someone mentions one that he thinks is kind of “eh,” he’ll just add himself into the mix. “Oh, you like MC x Barbatos? Well how about Asmo x MC x Barbatos? That sounds loads more interesting doesn’t it??”

Beelzebub 

Oh, Beel… Sweet, sweet Beel… Beel doesn’t even know what their club is doing…

Because Beel has a reputation of being pretty protective of MC - and against the fanclub in general - the club keeps a healthy distance… but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to sneak in some picture or make a SHITLOAD of fanwork about them.

Between classes and practice Beel is a busy guy, so sometimes he just doesn’t notice that there’s people hiding behind trees when he’s out with MC. 

Honestly, his complete ignorance of it all makes it even cuter because when he acts sweet, it’s not just for the camera. That’s the real deal.

Mammon was the one who eventually let it slip that there was even shipping happening and Beel was… kind of creeped out because isn’t this stalking? But also kind of weirdly happy(?) that MC x Beel was so popular… Very conflicted boy here.

He never actually acknowledges the community, though, and just keeps on being Beel (which still gave the fans more than enough material so all’s well that ends well?)

Beel genuinely doesn’t have a least favorite ship (because he believes the best ship is whoever makes the MC happy) but his second favorite under himself is probably MC x Belphie. They look very cute together...  😊

Belphegor 

Ride or die, Beel x MC x Belphie. 

Just kidding (kind of), Belphie isn’t into the shipping but if asked he’d be pretty okay with that one.

His campaign against the MC’s fanclub and their attention stealing ways means that he found out about their shipping thing only slightly ahead of Beel when Mammon was trying to get pictures of them napping together…

Honestly, he couldn’t care less if a bunch of weirdos were weirdly invested in their relationship, but he’s not about to let Mammon just make a quick Grimm off of it. Belphie makes sure that he gives him NOTHING to work with. 

Since Mammon is the main dealer, the shippers in both the MC fanclub and Belphie fanclub aren’t nearly as well fed and pretty desperate for anything... You best believe he plays that to his advantage (because it’s okay if he does. He’s not Mammon).

Really helps that MC x Belphie is legitimately a very cute looking couple, carried by Belphie’s cuteness alone if nothing else. Add an adorable MC and you reach levels so cute it could actually melt people into puddles of goo... They could be a registered weapon.

Least favorite MC ships are any that don’t involve him or Beel. Any others may as well just not exist, he won’t even acknowledge them. MC x Who? Yeah, that’s what he thought.

[wordupcomics]

We would like to see more about the adventures of the boys (Violet, Scoops, Becky and Tobey) when they were teenagers we really love to see our favorite team interacting with each other 💗

Hey Anon! Sorry this took so long! It took me a while to think of things and then when I did I wanted to draw them but by that point I'd already kept you waiting for a while so I only have two drawings but I have a lot of ideas I will share through text instead!

First lets do the moment with the drawings

So it starts with the gang as teenagers, all four of them in detention. The girls and the boys got detention for different reasons, and ask the other why they are there. First Becky and Violet ask Tobey and Scoops why they're there. It's a long answer, so I'll just have Becky sum it up for you

Becky:...So...let me get this straight...Scoops saw Mr. Smith and Mrs. Stevens kissing in the parking lot, and decided to right an article about it and why we should remain loyal to our partners...and then Tobey pointed out that if anyone saw that article he could damage Mr. Smith and Mrs. Stevens marriages and get in trouble. So to avoid getting in trouble you two decided to flush the article down one of the toilets in the boys locker room and it clogged the pipes and flooded the boys locker room and you two got detention for causing damage to school property????

Tobey: Yes we hear the irony that we did that to avoid Scoops getting in trouble and then ultimately got in trouble because of it

Becky: Not even on my list of concerns right now. First of all...why did you have to destroy the article? Why couldn't you have just not published it? You could have hidden it or thrown it away?

Violet: No they should have recycled it!

Scoops: What if I recycled it and someone found it? Or what if I lost it and someone found it? it would spread like wildfire!

Becky: Okay, but why flush it down the toilet??? You could have shred it?

Violet: Or painted over it!

Becky: Or used one of Tobey's robots to destroy it

Violet: Or you guys could have thrown it in my fire pit when you came over next weekend to roast marshmallows!

Tobey and Scoops (realizing they're right): ...

Becky: And secondly (Looks to Violet as they both try to choke down a laugh) Mr. Smith and Mrs. Stevens are married

Scoops: I know, that's why I wrote an article on cheating Becky!

Violet: No, you guys, they're married to each other

Tobey and Scoops: ...What..??

Becky: Mrs. Stevens wanted to keep her last name so she never changed it

Violet: They've been happily married for twenty years

(Tobey and Scoops then realize they got detention for basically no reason at all as Becky and Violet burst out laughing):

Tobey: Oh yeah! And why are you two here, hmm? What bad thing could the two most rule-following students in the school have possibly done to end up in detention with us?

Becky and Violet (paniced): No reason

Scoops: No no no! We told you, now you gotta tell us! What'd you two do?

Violet: ....Well...Becky brought her laptop to school today so we could look at Pretty Princess fanart at lunch...

Scoops: At lunch? A teacher shouldn't give you detention for goofing off on a computer at lunch

Becky: Yeah the problem wasn't when we were looking at it...the problem was the particular fanart that just happened to be on the computer when the teacher passed by...

Tobey: ... What in the world kind of fanart were you two looking at?????

Becky: We were just looking at normal fanart! As it turns out some people one the internet are...messed up and we accidentally ran into some fanart that...um...

Violet: Will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life...

Becky: and was ultimately deemed "highly inappropriate" by the teacher...

(Tobey and Scoops then burst out laughing):

I'm gonna put some more scenarios under the cut!

Becky begged Tobey to read this amazing book she just loves:

Becky: Have you read it yet?! Wasn't it amazing?!

Tobey: ...Becky you are one of my dearest friends but I have to be honest with you-This was the worst book I have ever had the displeasure to read

Becky: (Yanks the book out of Tobey's hands and "covers it's ears") (Gasps) IT CAN HEAR YOU!!!

Tobey: ....please see a shrink...

Mrs. McCallister is finally ready for Tobey to meet her new boyfriend and Tobey is super nervous. Scoops gets this idea that he'll look up the guy in the phone book, call him, and pretend he's randomly interviewing people on the phone for a school article, when instead he's actually getting information Tobey needs to get to know the guy better so he knows what to expect (fun fact: this man would later become Tobey's stepdad, his name is Alex). Scoops has the phone on speaker so Tobey can hear

After a bunch of oddly specific questions:

Alex, on the other end: ...Are you a friend of Claire's boy, Tobey?

Scoops: ...

Alex: ...

Tobey: ...

Scoops: Bye! (hangs up in panic)

Tobey: SCOOPS!

Scoops: He was on to us! I panicked! What was I supposed to do???

Tobey: NOT THAT! YOU MAY AS WELL HAVE SAID YES!

Scoops wrote an article about WordGirl. He didn't see anything wrong with it...Becky did...

Becky: How could you say that about me!?

Scoops: I didn't think you'd care!

Becky: Well I do!

Scoops: I'm sorry, Becky. I didn't know you felt so insecure about this or I never would have written it, I promise!

Becky: Insecure! I am NOT insecure!

Scoops (raising an eyebrow): ... define insecure

Becky: ...

Scoops: ...

Becky: I'm leaving! (leaves)

Tobey is in the park reading, Violet is also at the park, doing an art show. She walks up to Tobey all sad and sits next to him

Violet: Hi..

Tobey: What's the matter?

Violet: Someone came to my art show and said he thought all my art was terrible...

Tobey: ...Who in the world would say such a thing???

Violet: That guy over there...

Tobey: You know he's probably just jealous of how talented you are and is masking his insecurities behind rude comments

Violet: ... You really think so?

Tobey: Oh yes, I used to do it all the time..I still catch myself doing it to be honest

Violet: Well now I feel bad for him..

Tobey: Well there's nothing you can do about him, so if I were you I'd just go and continue your art show like normal

Violet: You're right Tobey! Thanks! (leaves for her art show)

Tobey: (pulls out his remote) Insult my dear innocent friend? Not on my watch

Becky and Violet talking about Pretty Princess

Becky: I mean...I know none of it is canon but it's still a good idea right?

Violet: Becky! This is the best AU idea I've ever heard!

Becky: (gasps) I'll write fanfiction for it and you draw fanart for it?

Violet: YES!

Becky and Violet: (Excited screams)

Tobey, now officially having given up crime, is doing community service (of his own volition) to make up for his past actions. Becky, Scoops and Violet come up

Becky: How's community service going?

Tobey: It's awful! But I'm glad I'm doing it

Violet: Want some help?

Tobey: No, it wouldn't feel right

Scoops: Well, can we just sit here and keep you company then?

Tobey: ... Of course!

In high school, Violet got into acting and often performed in school plays. Her first play ever she invited all her friends to come see, and of course they were happy to watch her have fun on stage! However when they saw the play it was....horrendous. Worst thing they'd ever seen. After the play was over Violet happily came over to ask them what they thought of it. Important note: Violet and Scoops were dating at the time

Tobey, seeing Violet coming: What do I do??? I can't tell Violet it was terrible! It would break her heart! But I can't lie to her either! That's wrong!

Becky: Tobey, relax, just do what I do

Violet: Hey guys! What'd you think?

Becky: you looked like you were having so much fun!

Tobey and Scoops: Yeah you did!

Violet: I was! But what did you think of the play itself?

Becky: ...Well...honestly you guys mispronounced so many words I couldn't really enjoy it. I mean it's not your fault, no one uses those words anymore but you know...I know how they're pronounced and can't stand when words are pronounced wrong so...

Violet: Oh that makes sense! We'll work on that! Maybe you can tell me how to pronounce them!

Becky: Sure!

Violet: Tobey what did you think?

Tobey: Um...I wasn't really a fan of the genre so I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I could have

Violet: Oh, what kind of genres do you like?

Tobey: ....a consistent one...

Violet: (laughs) You're so silly Tobey! Scoops! What'd you think?

Scoops: ... Um... I loved it of course! I mean, you were in it! And I love you! So how could I not love it!

Becky, having learned from the WordGirl stuff, later told Violet the truth and explained that she didn't like the play at all and only liked that Violet seemed so happy doing it. Violet took this well. Tobey and Scoops however...:

Scoops: PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM!

Tobey: What?

Scoops: The school paper wants me to review the school play! I can't say it was good, that goes against my oath as a reporter! But I can't say it was bad either, I already told Violet I loved it!

Tobey: Ask someone else to do it

Scoops: No one else has the time to take on any more assignments! What am I gonna do?! I don't wanna upset Violet!

Tobey: um...uh...could you post it anonymously?

Those actions eventually lead to Scoops and Violet breaking up (don't worry, they did get back together years later)

Scoops took his and Violet's break up particularly hard, and Tobey tried to cheer him up by finding weird things happening in the city for Scoops to write about. It didn't help a whole lot, but Scoops appreciated Tobey trying to cheer him up. Meanwhile Becky, who by this point all her friends knew she was WordGirl, essentially tried to fix Scoops and Violet's now ended relationship, and between trying to help them, school work, hero work and family life, she ended up stretching herself a little too thin to the point that all her friends had to do an intervention and tell her to stop because it wasn't good for her.

I've mentioned before that Becky's necklace in Word Up in significant and special to her. This necklace was actually made by Scoops, Violet and Tobey. Note the fact that her friends made it isn't the reason it's so important to her, but it is sweet they took the time to make it for her.

For one of his birthdays Tobey invited his friends to a demolition derby. When his friends said they thought it odd he'd be into that, he stated it was his new outlet for seeing destruction now that he was no longer doing crime.

Hmm that's all I have for now! If you are wanting more and have any particular questions or ideas, feel free to send more asks! If they are a little more specific I'll probably get to them a little sooner

[lovewillthaw-j]

Saving Elsa

An alternate in-movie fic (my first!). Set in between Anna climbing out of the cave, and waking the Giants. 

Inspired by Mego’s fanart, which also inspired my edit:

TW: depression, grief, drowning, hypothermia

Anna blinked in the sunlight. The beauty of the dawn in the Enchanted forest could not fill the enormous emptiness within her. She felt utterly lost without Elsa and Olaf. She knew she had to destroy the dam, but that would flood Arendelle and hurt her people. And besides, she had no idea how to destroy such a massive structure of stone without Elsa’s help.

Elsa. It hurt to think about Elsa, but as she stood there, uncertain about the next step, gradually, thoughts of finding Elsa’s body began to fill her mind till it overpowered every other thought. Even if she didn’t know where Elsa had gone, she was going to try. Anna knew she could not survive the torture of another funeral with no body to bury. She knew she had chased Elsa all the way to the North Mountain 3 years ago, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to give up without trying.

Retrace my steps, she thought. She lifted her head and looked around and was gradually aware of the sound of water flowing in the river. The river! I can follow it back to the path. She followed the sound of the water and gradually made her way to the river bank. The Giants were still asleep and she was careful not to wake them. Trudging along the bank, beyond ear shot of the Giants, she slowly made her way through the forest, stumbling a few times whenever she got distracted by thoughts of Elsa. Finally, she came to the spot where the boat had left Elsa's icy path. She recognised the branch that Olaf’s little hand had grabbed onto previously and felt a sting of pain. Reaching her hand into her satchel, she felt Olaf’s wooden arms and coal buttons. Tears streamed down her face, but she steeled herself and said to herself, I must keep going. For Elsa. 

A twinkle of ice crystals caught her eye. Elsa’s icy path had melted but there was still some lingering frost. She felt the ground with her hands and confirmed that it was cold and wet. I’m definitely on the right path, she thought.

Onward she trudged, on the path that she had so recently been on. She was hungry and tired and her legs and lungs were crying for a rest but she didn’t feel them calling out to her and pressed on. Finally she came to the stone at the last spot that she had been with Elsa, near their parents’ ship. Hot tears came to her eyes as she was reminded of Elsa's last hug and the last image of her parents before they died. 

The sounds of waves crashing on the shore became apparent and she was re-energised as she remembered that Elsa had mentioned that the Dark Sea was too dangerous, just before their final parting. Had Elsa tried to cross the Dark Sea?

She ran to the beach and faced the waves of the Dark Sea. Suddenly, she noticed Elsa’s boots and outer cloak neatly lying on a rock. She wept over Elsa’s cloak, caressing it with her hands and burying her nose in it, smelling Elsa’s scent. Time stood still as she clawed and groped at the cloak, the closest she had been to Elsa since the horrible separation a day ago. 

And then she saw them. Through her tears, she realised that there were footprints in the black sand, leading straight into the water. Elsa’s bare footprints. From the distance between the footprints, she surmised that Elsa had been running. She had run straight into the water. And now she was dead. Her body, lost at sea. Just like Agnarr’s and Iduna’s. A mindless fury took over her and she stood and ran to the water’s edge, screaming at the waves. 

Dark Sea!!! You have taken the lives of my parents and now, my sister!! What more can you take away from me!! I have no one to bury!! I have nothing left to live for!! Why don’t you finish me off too!!

So saying, she plunged into the water and swam as far as she could, fighting the cold and brutal waves. She felt her consciousness slipping away from her and in a haze, thought she heard a horse neighing. A horse? I must be hallucinating, she thought. Suddenly, the sea spat her back out onto the shore. Relentless, Anna tried to run into the sea again, but within a few minutes, found herself back on the shore. What was going on? 

Night had fallen and Anna was shivering. She was soaked to the skin and very, very cold. She had lost her cloak when she went down that waterfall. Momentarily giving up on trying to drown herself, Anna crawled back to the rock with Elsa’s cloak and boots, shaking violently. She pulled Elsa’s cloak over her and felt a moment of irritation when she realised it was so thin that it afforded no warmth at all. Thanks a lot sis, only you could wear a peekaboo cloak and not feel cold. Her muscles were cramping from the violent spasms and Anna felt that she would not survive much longer. Her eyelids closed and out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Elsa’s boot moving by itself. 

Darkness. And then, warmth. And a crackling fire.

Hours had passed and she woke up to find herself lying by a roaring fire and a little creature was resting on her bosom. A warm, wriggly...Salamander?! It was Bruni!!

Bruni!! You’re here? You made a fire to keep me warm? Anna noticed she was completely dry and felt much better. She was so relieved to have a companion, even if she wasn’t sure if he fully understood her. She held him in her hands and continued to speak to him.

Thank you so much Bruni. How did you know I was here? Bruni jumped out of her hands and ran to Elsa’s boot and crawled inside, then poked his head out, licking his eyeball and staring at her as if to say, I’ve been hiding in this boot waiting for Elsa to return!! Anna laughed as she realised that Elsa might have stepped on Bruni if she had put on her boots while he was in it! Laughing felt good. She felt like she hadn’t laughed in years.

Now what? What could she do to find Elsa? Say Bruni, do you know what happened to Elsa? Bruni looked at her quizzically, not seeming to understand. Sigh, you don’t speak, do you, thought Anna. She stood up and walked to the water’s edge. Why did the water spit me out, she thought to herself. She stooped and dipped her hands into the water. At this, suddenly Bruni hissed and sparks flew out of his body. He ran towards her and chased her back from the water’s edge, little tongues of flame emanating from his body. What’s wrong Bruni? What did I do? Suddenly, the flames erupted from Bruni, but instead of causing a fire, the fire took the shape of a horse.

A horse, Bruni? I don’t understand? What are you trying to...

A sudden ROAR of water from the ocean rang out and a mighty water horse emerged from the ocean and stepped on to the beach. The horse looked condescendingly at Bruni and took a menancing step forward. Bruni extinguished his flame and ran away, but he couldn’t resist turning his head back and sticking his tongue out at the horse.

Slowly Anna realised that this must be the water spirit! She had only encountered Gale, Bruni and the Earth Giants. Air, Fire, Earth and Water. This explained the neighing sounds she heard when the water spit her out! 

She curtsied formally to the magnificent horse and said, I’m princess... err... Queen Anna I suppose, of Arendelle. You must be the water spirit. I’m so sorry for shouting at you just now, I'm just trying to find my sister, Elsa. Thanks for saving my life just now. The Nokk bowed to Anna and she strode forward and stroked the Nokk’s neck. 

Suddenly, the Nokk bent lower and indicated that Anna was supposed to mount it. Surprised, Anna mounted the horse, not knowing anything better to do. Wait a moment, she said, as the Nokk stood up. Can Bruni come along? I’m still cold. Neighing a snort of irritation, the horse nodded its head. Gleefully, Bruni ran and jumped into Anna’s hands and ran up to her shoulder where he perched himself. Anna felt grateful for Bruni’s presence, both for the warmth and the comfort of a familiar face. 

With a whoosh! the Nokk broke into a gallop across the Dark Sea, taking Anna’s breath away as she flew over the black waters. Where is the Nokk taking me? she wondered to herself. Did Elsa come by this way too? Bruni happily stuck his tongue out and enjoyed the sea breeze. In the distance, Ahtohallan emerged, it’s frozen river glowing brightly against the dark stone. Anna gasped at the magnificent sight of the magical river. As the Nokk passed between the reflective pillars of ice that marked out the path to Ahtohallan, she stared at her reflection and her wonder increased. A powerful force seemed to be situated within Ahtohallan and she felt it drawing her in.

The Nokk slowed to a trot and gracefully stopped at Ahtohallan’s beach. Dismounting, Anna thanked the horse and it splashed back into the sea, disappearing in an instant. Now what? Anna asked Bruni. In response, Bruni jumped off Anna’s shoulder and ran to the open doorway of Ahtohallan, which Anna hadn’t noticed. Okay, keep going forward. Anna strode towards the doorway and gasped as she saw the four pillars with the spirits’ crystal logos carved into them. Bruni ran up the pillar with the Fire emblem on it, smiling proudly at her as the pillar momentarily lit up with an pink glow. Okay, well done to you, said Anna. But you’d better come with me cos it’s really cold here, okay Bruni? I’m not Elsa. Bruni obligingly ran back to Anna and climbed onto her shoulder once more as Anna walked through the doorway of Ahtohallan.

On and on Anna walked within Ahtohallan, it’s magic getting stronger and stronger as she went deeper within. She wasn’t sure what all this had to do with Elsa, but she knew from Mother’s lullaby that in Ahtohallan, all is found, all the answers, and she was going to go as far in as she could and ask Ahtohallan where Elsa was. She came to a slippery tunnel and gingerly made her way across. However, to her consternation, the tunnel ended in a sudden steep drop into a huge cavern. She could see the tunnel’s continuation on the other side, but there was no way across. (Unknown to her, Elsa had recently come this way and had made her way across pillars of ice, however, these had all flurried away when Elsa froze to death) 

Bruni, what do we do now? asked Anna, hearing her voice echo in the cavern. I can’t get across this huge gap and I can’t see anyway to climb down there. Bruni cocked his head at her but didn’t seem to know how to help her. Nevertheless, Anna was bolder now after having met 2 spirits. Plus, she knew that Gale had had a special connection with her mother and Elsa had tamed Gale. She called out, confidently, her voice ringing in the cavern: Gale! GALE! Please. It’s Anna. Remember me? Please, I need your help. I know you are able to carry me to the other side.

With a flurry of tiny ice particles, Gale appeared and swirled around Anna, playing with her hair and tickling her sides. Her satchel momentarily flapped open in the breeze and the ice particles flurried inside, wandered over Olaf’s remains, and sailed out again. I know, I miss him too, Gale. Thank you for coming, now can you carry me -

With a gust of wind, in mid-sentence, Anna suddenly found herself floating in the air. Bruni was thoroughly enjoying himself as Gale transported them both over. Whoa! That was sudden, Gale. But thank you very much. Anna continued her trek into Ahtohallan, coming upon the great hall where Elsa had recently re-arranged the giant pillars of ice. The architecture of this place was breathtakingly beautiful. She passed through another doorway and came to an enormous cave where, unbeknownst to her, Elsa had recently seen Iduna and created the snowy images of memories, all of which had since flurried away. There was another dark doorway framed in snow leading out of the cave, which Anna walked into. This led to a downward sloping path, and terminated again in a steep cliff with a sharp drop. Anna strained her eyes to look at the ground below.

Suddenly, Anna spotted a tiny figure that looked like Elsa. An anguished cry escaped her lips. Elsa was far away, at the bottom of the cliff and she was not moving. In fact, she looked completely different and...white. White as ice. No no no no... This isn't happening...say its not true...

Gale, please hurry!! No sooner had the words left her mouth, Anna felt Gale carrying her down the cliff gently. It was very cold here, even Bruni’s warmth seemed insufficient to battle the biting cold. The descent felt like an eternity to Anna, and she knew Elsa had gone too deep, against Mother’s warning.

ELSAAAAA!!!!!!! 

cried Anna, running towards the cold, still statue of ice. She repeatedly called and called her sister's name as she hugged her cold body desperately, willing her to come back to life. Anna held Elsa's face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. She kissed Elsa’s frozen lips but nothing happened. Please. PLEASE. Ahtohallan, spirits, anybody. Undo this, this spell, whatever magic is going on here. Her voice sounded thin and empty in the bitter cold air.

Bruni! Can you warm her up? Please? Bruni gave her a sad look. She had never seen Bruni in grief before. Anna placed Bruni on Elsa's body, but Bruni did not even attempt to make any heat. Thoroughly exhausted and defeated, Anna clung onto Elsa and cried anew, tears flowing freely. This is the end, thought Anna. I can't bring Elsa's body back to Arendelle. She's become one with the ice of Ahtohallan. Oh how cruel can this be. I've come all the way here with the help of 3 spirits, which is pretty incredible, but in the end I'm sadder than ever before. I'm really ready to succumb now.

Her tears flowed down her cheek and dropped onto Elsa's cold, hard face. Suddenly, the tears glowed with light and were absorbed into Elsa’s face. The light from her tears travelled within Elsa’s frozen body and went towards Elsa’s heart. Then, a glow glimmered through Elsa's body and travelled up her left arm, which was frozen and stretched up to the heavens. It was only then that Anna realised how different Elsa looked, without her braid and in a totally new dress emblazoned with the spirit symbols. Had Elsa met the fifth spirit? Was Elsa THE fifth spirit?

A beam of light and snow came out of Elsa's icy hand, though it was feeble and much less powerful than what Anna was accustomed to. Elsa remained frozen stiff but the snow gradually collected and formed into...an image of her parents. The glow in Elsa's body then faded but Anna hardly noticed as the snowy images of her parents came alive and started speaking.

Iduna: Darling, I've been thinking. It might be time to tell Anna about Elsa. I can't bear keeping her shut out anymore. She's maturing now. She can be responsible.

Agnarr: It's not Anna I'm worried about. What if we let them get close again and the feelings are too much for Elsa? Joy brings out her powers as strongly as fear.

Iduna: But if anyone can find a way to help her, it's Anna.

Agnarr: You may be right about that. There's not much that girl can't do.

Iduna: Her love could hold up the world.

Agnarr: Lucky for the world. Okay. We'll tell her when we return.

The images of her parents stopped moving. Anna wept again, happy tears this time. This was truly a magical place of memories. She embraced the icy images of her father and mother with deep hugs, and felt their love pour into her anew, even though it had been six years since she'd last seen them set sail. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Her mother's words rang in her memory. 

If anyone can find a way to help her, it's Anna.

Anna held Elsa by her waist, wondering what she could do. Her tears had somehow developed some power of their own when they touched Elsa, she realised. Could she do it again? On a hunch, she got down and placed one hand on the icy floor and kept her other hand on Elsa’s body, and she spoke out loud: Elsa, I love you. Ahtohallan, spirits, this is my beloved sister and I would do anything to bring her back. Please, show me something I can do.

Magically, the ground under Anna's hand glowed and ice crystals started to rise from the ground and coalesce into images! Anna gazed in amazement as a small-sized version of the dam appeared in front of her. But there was more. She could make out 3 blocky figures moving slowly towards the dam, in the distance. Suddenly, she realised she was looking at three Earth Giants and just then, they started throwing rocks at the miniature dam. As she followed the trajectory of the flying rocks, she saw a tiny version of herself running on top of the dam, dodging the rocks as they crashed into the dam, destroying it. Then the image faded away and morphed into a small version of Elsa, in her current frozen state, but coming back to life. The images then froze.

Anna sat down heavily, trying to process what she had just witnessed, here in Ahtohallan, the place of memories. She figured that she must be seeing "memories" from the future - visions. That didn’t sound too far-fetched, considering that Elsa had seen a memory from 35 years in the past. Momentarily, Anna wondered if she had gained powers herself and she absentmindedly tried to lift her hand and conjure up snow. Nothing happened. 

I don’t want ice or any form of powers, anyhow. I’m happy to be me and I just want you back, Elsa. She knew her request had been answered. She now knew how to save Elsa and how to destroy the dam. Now all that was left was to get it done.

Thank you, she breathed. Thank you Ahtohallan.

Elsa, I'm going to save you.

======

How this continues: with Gale and Nokk's help, Anna leaves Ahtohallan and re-crosses the Dark Sea, reaching the Earth giants. The story then continues as it did in the movie (Wake up!!!!!). With some important adjustments 1) Anna is not as sad when talking to Kristoff 2) When Elsa gallops toward Anna on Nokk, Anna is not sad, but surprised because she thought she would have to go back to Ahtohallan to get her. 3) When Elsa says “You saved me”, Anna replies “Yeah, I know!!!!” to which Elsa is shocked and then, Anna shares that she too has been to Ahtohallan. 

For those who aren’t aware, the scene of Iduna and Agnarr is directly lifted from the Deleted Scene, A Place Of Our Own. I just wanted to include it...

Headcanons applied in this fic - 1) 5th spirit’s powers are to extract memories from water; 2) Anna, as the other half of the bridge, can also communicate with the spirits and they help her get to Ahtohallan as she has no powers; 3) Anna becomes the 5th spirit for a short while - there was some transference when her tears fell onto Elsa; 4) Iduna is a memory, not a ghost; 5) Ahtohallan (Sentient) shows memories of the parents to the girls to comfort them and strengthen their resolve; 6) I was inspired by Rapunzel’s tears falling onto and reviving Eugene; 7) This fic features Brunanna heavily =) ; 8) I like the idea that Bruni and Nokk are “rivals” (water vs fire) and Bruni is cheeky towards Nokk.

[cattles-bians]

damie vibecca exes au part 8

post directory

obsetress: now i just want fanart of damvibecca at the gym

em: well. pitch it to me comrade ghostfucker

obsetress: idk that's about as far as i got i just reread that bit about vibecca in their matching gym outfits and my brain got stuck

em: hypothetically do u have a colour palette in mind bc i associate gym outfits w like. bright loud colours and

em: idk if it works w our earth sign queens

[em note: emily is a liar and did NOT draw fanart of damvibecca at the gym]

[em note 2: we have the gym art now [x] [x]]

obsetress: i was imagining like charcoals tbh, or jewel tones

obsetress: i could see them in like jewel tone purples or that jewel tone blue green color

obsetress: yeah viola jewel tones or blacks n charcoals

obsetress: becs pastels and camels but jewel tones at the gym

em: it’s about Matching

em: And Destroying Ur Ex (platonically)

obsetress: yeah

obsetress: viola's feeling particularly smug about it but then

obsetress: dani's in an old school tshirt and shorts and jamie's in............ one of dani's old school tshirts and shorts

em: YES

obsetress: not intentionally, she just grabbed whatever was there

obsetress: dani chirps "oh you two look so cute! baby look, they have a matched set"

obsetress: viola arches an eyebrow "and so do you, it seems" and dani laughs "not on purpose, jamie just grabbed whatever was on top in the drawer"

viola: you two... share... a wardrobe?

dani: yeah?

em: god cute

obsetress: cute n dumb

em: they can share nearly everything except pants

em: well. pants as a treat

em: haha pants

em: trousers

obsetress: also rly nice rly clean smooth funny juxtaposition in my brain of vibecca being the ones who intentionally match and damie the ones for whom it just accidentally happens

obsetress: hahahah pants

obsetress: they can share pants but................ should they

em: idk miss chapter 12 danis thighs jamies pyjamas

em: should they

obsetress: PLEASE

obsetress: that's exactly what i was referring to THANKS

obsetress: anyway

obsetress: rebecca just laughs

obsetress: viola huffs and bex is like "sorry, babe, but it is kind of funny"

em: dani jamie wearing like

obsetress: YEAH

obsetress: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

em: poor viola

obsetress: thinking about dani's ass in those

em: yeah....

em: violas huffing until jamies exercise flush lasts a little Too Long

obsetress: big blush jamie taylor

em: she’s still like ‘oi dani close ur mouth’ but then she

obsetress: yeah

obsetress: just ogling each other

obsetress: (they briefly pause to ogle vi and rebecca passing a medicine ball back and forth as they do squats and have to acknowledge that, yeah, they've all done alright by themselves)

em: funny montage of the gang doing exercise while surreptitiously taking Peaks

obsetress: omg all i want

obsetress:sometimes having friends as a lesbian means they're all your exes except one, who's your gf, and you're all checking each other out always anyway

em

And That’s Beautiful

obsetress

obsetress: dani: checking out viola's biceps, rebecca's abs

viola: checking out dani's thighs n ass

rebecca: minding her business

jamie: scowling n scrawny

obsetress:(n also checking out dani's thighs n ass, viola's biceps, and begrudgingly peeking at rebecca's abs)

obsetress: every other woman at the gym: checking out jamie, trying to figure out the entire dynamic here

are they a polycule? what

em: jamie probably like

em: maybe she gets really into running bc she just checks out and listens to her audiobooks but like

em: slow twitch vs fast twitch fibers so stays scrawny

obsetress: i can see that

obsetress: just gets on the treadmill and zones tf out

em: jamie ‘why don’t i have biceps’ taylor vs jamie ‘no u gotta lift w ur hips’ taylor

obsetress: she hates it but her psych told her it'll be good for her routine so you know she was like yes ma'am every day ma'am

em: cant believe safe lifting procedures screwed her over

em: ‘yes ma’am every day ma’am’ ur just Going for it arent ya anshdjdh

obsetress: sorry but don't tell me you can't hear it

obsetress: jamie's the person who takes notes in therapy

obsetress: jamie, in the locker room after their workout: do my biceps look bigger?

dani, patiently, already knowing where this is going: bigger than what, baby?

jamie: than yesterday

dani: mm, rome wasn't built in a day, you know

jamie: do they look bigger at all?

dani: well

em: i mean not to perceive her too much but mattresses scene indicates AE/jamie like. at least some muscle in the leg area

em: poor jamie

em: not playing to her strengths

obsetress: yeah she does

obsetress: i mean ae has toned af arms

obsetress: she's just wiry

em: how could i forget the benchpressing dog gif

obsetress: dani's like "jamie, baby, come do squats with me and vi" "m'good" "baby, c'mon, you'll like it" "don't wanna do squats" "it could be good for you" "don't wanna do squats with you two"

em: dani: you gotta like. eat more

jamie: i eat plenty

dani: no u graze all day and then u don’t eat dinner

obsetress: dani: five biscuits spread out across a day doesn't count as eating more

em: dani: protein jamie it’s abt protein

obsetress: dani: you need more protein, which is why i think some lentils would really––

em: jamie thinks protein shakes are Nasty

obsetress: jamie does think protein shakes are nasty but dani will make her a smoothie and sneak it in like she's a child

obsetress: viola and rebecca, with their matching monogrammed blender bottles, just staring

obsetress: becca's like "jamie, just drink it, really, it's fine"

obsetress: viola just does this haughty sniff at her and that's what finally gets jamie to start

em: jamie can deal w being a brat but the idea of viola having Anything over her drives her Insane

em: Drives Her Fuckign Nuts

obsetress: she hates it

obsetress: just the absolute fuckin worst

em: do u think dani ever like

em: like they REALLY need to clear out storage but it’s a boiling frog situation where it’s increased so gradually that

em: like jamie thinks it’s Fine storage is Clear Enough

em: it’s Not

em: danis like. should we invite rebecca and vi over

em: just be Idea of A Snide Viola Comment fills jamie w a burning rage

obsetress: oh my god

obsetress: i'm obsessed with this

obsetress: i would read a whole oneshot about this

em: eventually dani comes clean abt it n jamie thinks it’s v funny bc yknow; open and honest communication is a v important part of their dynamic

em: jamie: next time just tell me my storage looks like shite dani or i will be grumbling abt viola for a Week

obsetress: inevitably

obsetress: when they do have to come over to clean

obsetress: dani offers them takeout and wine ("step up from pizza and beer at least," jamie grumbles) and viola's like "jesus, dani, let's just go out to dinner. my treat"

obsetress: at dinner, viola's like "if you want more storage, i have some wonderful properties––"

obsetress: rebecca's mouthing "sorry" from next to her across the table

em: every time they go out rebecca takes vi aside n is like ok sweetheart so you promise you’re not gonna try convince them to sell the apartment again

em: and violas like (mock horror) of course i won’t. ye of little faith

em: and every time

em: every time she does

em: she’s tryna HELP

obsetress: she would too she'd be like

obsetress: "i'm just trying to HELP"

obsetress: "they're our FRIENDS"

em: i’m on a mission to figure out like

em: this is way way down the line

em: but i wanna believe eventually viola and jamie start to, at the v least, Tolerate each other

em: jamie might even be fond of the crazy bird but she’ll NEVER admit it

obsetress: god like vi's on business or some shit in like

obsetress: the UAE

obsetress: negotiating some Deal

obsetress: and so dani and jamie get dinner with just bex and they're driving home after and having a perfectly mundane conversation and then jamie's just blurting like

obsetress: "i think i miss vi"

em: she’s HORRIFIED

em: she tries to play it off as like um

em: she’s Too Comfortable

em: things are Too Boring

em: which is weird knowing everything we know abt jamie

em: but actually she just... maybe misses viola

em: danis like god i wish i was recording this

obsetress: jamie's passed out next to her at home later (it's ten pm) and dani's chattering happily away on the phone with vi (drinking a martini in her dubai hotel room at one am since, y'know, no bars) in bed right next to her

obsetress: "jamie, uh, said she misses you. i know. no, i KNOW. don't tell her i told you. yeah, yeah, you win, vi, we know. uh-huh. uh-huh. i'm gonna pretend you didn't just ask me that"

em: CUTE

em: u can’t lord it over her vi it’s a little secret

em: vi's like when have i EVER

em: she does

obsetress: once they're good again, dani and vi absolutely just. lose time (there's a metaphor in there) talking to each other still

em: this is wholesome tbh

em: i really like the damie stories where like

em: look it’s nice when damie have each other but it’s also nice when they have their own friends and stuff

em: dunno how to articulate that well

em: it’s a balance! it’s a balance

obsetress: yeah! exactly

obsetress: because that's part of the love n possession thing too yk

obsetress: not to say either of them would ever be like "no friends for you" but

obsetress: wanting to have a life outside of your partner yk

obsetress: they're meeting vi and rebecca for dinner after vi gets back and vi's just grinning and sweeping jamie into a hug "i heard you missed me"

em: she gets jamie a souvenir t-shirt

em: it’s too big

em: OR

em: child’s t-shirt

obsetress: (jamie sleeps in it that night)

obsetress: oh childs might be better

obsetress: she's like "you're a little scrawny, so..."

em: jamie sleeps in it.... soft bitch

em: she feels too much

obsetress: jamie taylor softest bitch

obsetress: dani watches her pull it on and raises an eyebrow and jamie's just like "wot"

em: jamies like (grumbles) i knew she was comin back i’m just

em: shouldn’t you be HAPPY about this development dani

em: ‘s’a gift... s’rude not t’....’

obsetress: YEAH

obsetress: dani just grins "mmhm"

em: it accidentally makes its way into jamies workout clothes pile

obsetress: oh my GOD oh my god

obsetress: viola's shit eating GRIN when jamie shows up at the gym in it

em: jamies like fok

em: mental maths tryna figure if she wants to just. work out in a sports bra

em: she Doesn’t

obsetress: she Doesn't!

obsetress: (she's shy)

em: god it’s one of those shirts that’s like

em: someone who loves me went to UAE and got me this t-shirt or something

obsetress: dani corners her in their empty row in the locker room "you could've just taken it off, you know" "dunno, not everyone needs to... see that, you know?" "i'd certainly like to see it" jamie rolls her eyes but she's grinning "you can see that any time" "well maybe i wanted to see it during my workout" "dani......."

em: jamies embarrassed bc of her gnarly farmers tan means her tummy is at least five shades lighter than the rest of her

em: crisp tan lines

obsetress: god jamie's farmers tan

em: once again i am bringing my tan lines jamie agenda

obsetress: dani loves jamies dumb farmers tan so much

obsetress: she giggles

obsetress: but it's the most loving giggle possible

em: and then when she gets into running...

em: god when i was rowing there were a couple ppl w like what i called a neapolitan icecream tan which is

em: gimme a second

obsetress: jamie gets all huffy when dani giggles at her tan but then dani's like "baby, no, i think it's cute" and jamie gives her a look and dani grins mischievously and ducks her head

obsetress: and then she's licking and kissing and nipping her way along jamie's dumb tan lines

em: there it is

obsetress: it was inevitable

em: so caught up in the joy of jamies dumb farmer tans i forgot abt her gnarly scar she keeps under wraps

em: baby

em: the most baby

obsetress: baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

em: jamie decides the only way to claim the stupid t-shirt as hers is to cut off the sleeves

em: it’s abt the ritual of the thing

obsetress: she shows up at the gym wearing it and

obsetress: that's viola's "oh no she's hot" moment

em: YEAH BABY

obsetress: literally just like

obsetress: world stops

obsetress: viola stares

em: jamie finally gets to do an exercise that shows off her sinewy manual labor grip forearms

em: viola’s probably just as horrified to find jamie hot as every time jamies like oh no

em: violas hot

em: and once again jamie CANNOT know she’s hot bc she will be insufferable

em: she will be the Worst

obsetress: viola's tugging rebecca aside "why didn't you tell me jamie was hot" "what?" viola waves a hand and rebecca just furrows her brow a little and is like "that's just... what she looks like, vi"

obsetress: viola corners dani next "why didn't you tell me jamie was hot" "i did" "oh. right" viola pauses, then "why didn't you make sure i was listening?" dani just gives her a look and walks away

obsetress: dflksdjfldaj god the way jamie and viola are. the same

obsetress: kind of incredibly, in the same ways dani and rebecca are the same

em: “hey baby, did viola seem different today? seemed off”

em: jamies like. is she mad at me. did i break another social taboo.

em: rebecca ‘jamie looks like jamie’ jessel vs dani ‘my gf is so hot i can’t stand it’ clayton

obsetress: "i tell you how hot she is at least three times a week, vi"

em: danis tryna goad her into making the damn shirt a crop top

em: jamies like yeah but isn’t that a step too far. i feel like i am destroying this shirt too much

em: she does it anyway

em: so jamies workout clothes are danis endless grey baggy school t-shirts and this one ugly souvenir shirt that like

em: psychological warfare and she doesn’t even know it

obsetress: i would........ like to see it

obsetress: also crop top jamie is one of my favorite jamies

obsetress: she is severely underrated

em: crop top jamie is

obsetress: and we do not talk about her enough

em: jamie wear More crop tops

obsetress: viola and rebecca in bed, in matching facemasks, after going to the gym post-epiphany that Jamie Is Hot

obsetress: viola: are dani and jamie hotter than us?

rebecca: what?

obsetress: and like

obsetress: viola is NOT insecure

obsetress: she is constantly confident that she's the most attractive woman in the room at any given moment, but

obsetress: she's just so staggered by this realization

em: some neutral third party (ms grose and mr sharma probably) are like well. u guys definitely have a little more of a scary thing going on

em: i’m imagining rebecca and viola at brunch w hannah and owen v seriously discussing this

em: viola brings it up and rebecca GROANS but then she gets invested in the convo

obsetress: GOD yeah

obsetress: she's leaning forward and gesturing with her fork "when you say 'scary'..........."

em: owens like scary is a compliment

em: hannah grose sips her tea knowingly

obsetress: rebecca just narrows her eyes at hannah grose and hannah raises her eyebrows and shrugs

em: after a week or so viola bursts into a room w stupid big sunglasses and a tray of take out coffees and she’s like Don’t You Worry Jamie I Have Concluded You’re Hot But I’m Not Threatened By It

em: jamies like sorry WHAT

em: you’ve been thinking about WHAT

em: viola leaves without ever following it up

obsetress: dani is entirely unfazed

obsetress: doesn't even blink

em: danis like neat she remembered the oat milk

em: everyone in this au is insane

obsetress: any lesbian in 2021 is insane

obsetress: par for the course

em: was gonna protest but

em: Yeah

obsetress: this lesbian meme account i follow on insta is doing “stop asking who’s the top and who’s the bottom. start asking...” posts

obsetress: and one of them is “start asking who’s baby and who’s fuck around and find out” and it just makes me chuckle

obsetress: jamie taylor baby

obsetress: viola lloyd also baby

em: dani is baby passing and jamie is fuck around faking

obsetress: oh my god that’s why that’s why i think we cracked it

obsetress: dani (fuck around) dated jamie (baby) and vi (baby)

obsetress: rebecca (fuck around) dated jamie (baby) and vi (baby)

obsetress: the reason they could never cross further even tho per the transitive property dani (so similar to vi) should be able to date beccs and jamie (so similar to beccs) should be able to date vi is because

obsetress: you can’t have two babies and two fuck arounds in a relationship together

em: oh of course. i see. i see

em: however in the rare rare crack ship of the ‘jamie viola hatefuck’ a similar phenomenon to ‘social anxiety mum friend ordering food’ instinct takes over and someone fucks around and finds out

em: this is just my unhinged jamie viola hatefuck bulkshit which is. it’s ironic ok it’s ironic it’s ironic it’s

em: ok one last thought bc i know it’s super late for u but

obsetress: omg i also have a last thought let’s trade

em: what if mikey is about isabels age n jamie ends up looking after him for one reason or another for a bit

em: and viola absolutely Dotes on him

obsetress: omg

obsetress: that’s what does it. jamie seeing viola w mikey

em: grumble grumble i guess she’s not that bad

em: except then she’s like god what if mikey likes her MORE than me

obsetress: “dani what if mikey gets one of those weird first crushes on vi”

obsetress: dani doesn’t even look up from the laundry “who hasn’t had a crush on vi”

obsetress: jamie’s like “mE” and dani just gives her the most withering look

em: danis like It’s Par For The Course Jamie

em: danis a teacher she’s like it happens don’t sweat it

em: anyway

em: what was. what was ur last little thought

obsetress: i was just thinking more about viola also baby and how also she’s been so privileged her whole life that sometimes there are just some things she can’t do for herself because she just doesn’t know how

obsetress: like she’s never had to learn

em: rebecca gets um

em: freeze dried coffee

em: nescafé

obsetress: but like

obsetress: rebecca genuinely loves taking care of vi for whatever reason (it’s because she loves her) when she really needs it but

obsetress: rebecca also takes no shit and is like “i’m not making the nescafé for you. you’re 36 years old, vi, you need to learn to do it for yourself”

obsetress: and she’ll stand there and watch her do it and then she makes vi do it at least three more times for posterity

obsetress: “i’ll make a plebeian of you yet, viola lloyd”

obsetress: (god only the two of them would think a line like that is funny)

[newtxtinaforever]

Happy Birthday Tina!

Hello there! Today's one shot is sponsored by @neighborhood-newtina-reblogger, a tumblr that I greatly admire. Okay, it's not technically sponsored by the blog, but it did provide the prompt/idea for this one shot, which I will include at the very end in case you want to know what it is. Also, the fanart above belongs to @sydsketch and partially inspires my fanfic as well. Don't want to put the prompt at the beginning and spoil the story, so without further ado, I hope you enjoy this little piece of my Newtina heart. Oh, and happy birthday Tina! ☺️

3rd POV

"Oh, Newt. She's perfect!" Tina exclaimed happily, a smile brightening up her usually tense features. It wasn't that the American witch held a grudge against smiling or having fun; quite the opposite, in fact. She was so used to being responsible that her default look was to come across as a professional who took her job seriously. When she was with Newt, however, she couldn't help but smile. His light-hearted nature simply had a way of making her feel like she could let her guard down and didn't have to worry about what kind of person Newt was. Having fought alongside him in the fight against Grindelwald, Tina knew she could trust Newt. It was a good thing because he had just given her a creature to call her own.

"Really? That's wonderful to hear. I hoped you would like her but I wasn't completely sure if you would be interested in-" Newt was quickly interrupted by Tina's warm words of gratitude. "I love her, Newt. Thank you," she replied. Her eyes sparkled with a light reminiscent of the creature that currently rested in its small glass case. "What's her name?" Tina asked softly as she admired the speckled salamander. Newt blushed before replying, "Well, I thought you might like to name her seeing as she's yours." Both pairs of eyes connected for the briefest of moments.

"Of course!" Tina blurted, although she soon regained her composure. "I'm not quite sure where to start, but I'm sure we can think of something." Newt's tender smile at Tina's inclusion of the word 'we' went unnoticed for the most part, yet the tone of their environment was clearly evident. It was nearly impossible to miss the delicate care each person felt for the other, so alive and tangible was it. The silence that settled in during certain moments of the conversation were not uncomfortable, but peaceful instead. Surprisingly enough, Newt was the next one to speak up.

"Keegan," he uttered cryptically. Tina tilted her head to the right by a dozen degrees. "Who?" she wondered aloud, her sharp eyes fixed on Newt. The famous magizoologist remained quiet for several seconds until Tina cleared her throat. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was simply suggesting Keegan as a name, but I understand if you don't like it. She's yours, so feel free to choose whatever name you feel is best."

Tina lowered her gaze to the ground, then extended her head upward. "The name's fine, Newt. And I want you to be included in the naming process, trust me," she said with reassurance in her voice. Newt smiled. "What about Thea? She's the Greek goddess of light, which is fitting since salamanders feed off of fire, right?" Tina inquired. She waited for a response from Newt, but he appeared not to have heard her. Beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him, Tina repeated the end of her previous sentence. "Right, Newt?"

The man in question displayed signs of life after what seemed like forever. His nose was scrunched as if he had caught a whiff of rotting maggots while his eyes blinked ferociously. What was going on? Tina prompted Newt to explain his behavior, although it took some serious persuading. "The name sounds a bit like... well... like Theseus, my brother." Tina nodded her head in agreement and decided to move on. The last thing she wanted was for her new companion to remind Newt of his older brother.

"Perhaps you might consider Idris. It's Welsh and can mean 'fiery' depending on the language." Newt explained gently. His voice was rich and full of childlike wonder, much to Tina's delight. It was rare to find such a kindred spirit in a world where brute strength and power was often congratulated. Tina tried not to let her emotions become too obvious as she lovingly murmured, "I think Idris is a lovely name. Thank you, Newt." Once again, both pairs of eyes connected and lingered; the result was pure fascination and ultimately love.

With their eyes still fixed on each other, Tina closed the space between them. Her long, thin arms wrapped themselves around the middle of Newt's back. Much like their prolonged glances, this embrace was personal and private, something that was special between them. Tina was keenly aware of Newt's reservations regarding the hug, so she made sure to take baby steps while reassuring Newt at the same time. Her fingers brushed lightly against Newt's back, the warmth from her hands radiating through his pale blue shirt. With a great amount of hesitance and care, Tina tightened her grip on Newt. Hopefully he wouldn't feel uncomfortable; that was the last thing Tina wanted. Nevertheless, she held on to him, refusing to let go just yet.

Nearly a minute had passed before Newt reciprocated the hug. Unbeknownst to Tina, his eyes watered and a huge grin spread across his face. Both sets of arms rested gently on the other's back, a sign of peace and acceptance. It didn't take long for Tina to pull Newt in closer, more confident this time. Any lingering doubt as to whether or not Newt would perceive such intimate physical contact to be desirable was gone. She knew that he would understand just as she had learned to understand the roundabout way he comforted and complimented her.

With an overflowing heart, Newt Scamander enveloped Tina in his arms; pure, sentimental emotion surrounded them. Every part of him wanted nothing more than to freeze that moment and remember it forever. Not only was it rare for Newt to desire physical contact, but it was also rare for him to feel so content as a result of it. In Tina, Newt found appreciation and compassion. Despite miscommunication being a continuous issue between them, the two old souls always managed to make things right. If Newt was honest, Tina completed him — to a certain extent. He hadn't felt that his life was 'less than' without her, but he did notice a change whenever she was around, whether physically or in Newt's thoughts. She was someone who helped him restore his jaded view of humanity, and for that, Newt was grateful.

The embrace continued for several more minutes, Newt mentally recording what it felt like to be so close to Tina.

The scent of her hair, the touch of her hands. Newt was so mesmerized that he even dared to lift Tina off the ground, just a couple inches, and spin her very gently. It was instinct and had occurred before he could stop himself. Never before had he allowed his emotions to come off so strongly in the presence of another human being, and he had to admit: it felt freeing.

As for Tina, she experienced similar sentiments during their embrace. Mind racing, heart soaring... Since when did Newt display such sudden outbursts of affection? While Tina was slightly confused by this, she didn't question it because of her elation. If Newt was comfortable enough to be so physically close with her, she took it as a sign of growth and was proud of him. Each second that passed served as a reward earned by the energy both had spent in order to fight against the evil forces that threatened wizards and muggles alike. After years of fighting, Newt and Tina were given a moment of reprieve. A moment to be still, but more importantly, to be happy.

For Newt, happiness took the form of feeding his creatures. This was nothing new, but having Tina by his side — her eyes full of adoration — made the event much more enjoyable. For Tina, growing closer to Newt served as her main source of happiness, although she also happened to find it in the pursuit of wizardkind's most elite criminals. After all, being an Auror was an important part of Tina's life. The fact that her devotion to justice nearly managed to get her killed was unfortunate, yet Tina had put it in the past where it belonged. She needed her job because it allowed her to protect innocent lives, and that was something Tina would never stop pursuing. Whether it was a sideways smile or a lengthy yet tender hug, both Newt and Tina were fond of the little things in life as well as each other. Nothing, not even Grindelwald, could take those feelings away from them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note: Below is the prompt for the above one shot ⬇️⬇️

I want Tina to initiate newtina’s first embrace. And I want it to happen in a happy context. I want her to realize that maybe Newt isn’t bold enough just yet to make that move, so she takes control and latches onto him. It won’t be like when Theseus hugged him, arms and back stiff the whole time. It will be at first, while he takes a few seconds to process what’s happening. In those few seconds, Tina is fully aware he’s processing the situation, so she holds him even tighter to reassure him that yes, she’s here. She wants this. She will wait. And once he finally accepts that, I want Newt to reciprocate her embrace with an enormous grin on his face (bonus points for misty eyes). I want him to wrap his arms around her back and tentatively return her gesture. Tina pulls even tighter to erase that last bit of questioning how far he should go. Then, Newt fully wraps her up in him, encasing her with his arms and body as completely as he can (bonus points for a little pick up and spin or something extra cute like that). And they stay like that for a while, just appreciating each other. Wordlessly processing their emotions. Surrendering to their feelings. Just being together like they want.

[wakaoujisenhime]

Hello! This one is gonna be so cute! Another one for Kiri and Tetsu again. This time separate. What if they had a crush on a girl in their class who has a cat quirk. The class decides to have a movie night. And about half way through their crush falls asleep on them. And they discover something. She quietly purrs when she sleeps. After the movie they wake her so everyone can go to bed. She’s in their lap by then, carefully moved. And they finally confess to her. She happily accepts of course. 😍

A/N: Can you guys imagine just how hard it is to find cute Tetsu fanart xD ...this boy has almost no fanart whatsoever (or maybe it’s just me who doesn’t know where to search xD). ANYWAY I hope you enjoy this piece of fluff for our two boys!  

Tags: Kirishima x reader ✅  Tetsutetsu x reader ✅  SFW ✅  fluff ✅  confession ✅

image/art source: Kirishima -> Twitter ; Tetsutetsu -> Pixiv (art by kongxwall)

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Let’s rewind it - Kirishima x reader

“How can (Y/N) be so cute...?“

“Hm? Did you say something?“

Kaminari looked at his red-haired friend who seemingly just noticed that he had spoken his thoughts aloud. Instead of answering him, Kirishima just shook his head and tried to hide his blushing cheeks from his friends’ curious gazes.

No matter how much he tried to twist and turn his words, it was very obvious that he had feelings for you.

Kirishima always fought with himself when it came to the question of whether he’d confess. For him the thought of a boy being honest about his feelings was the manliest thing there ever was, but the possibility of you rejecting and avoiding him in the process was a much greater risk he wasn’t ready to take.

But what he didn’t know was that you actually felt the same way about him. Sadly you were stuck with the thought that he only saw you as a friend and nothing more.

Having Kirishima on one side who was too afraid of losing you and having you on the other side who constantly labeled herself as nothing more but a friend was at first quite the amusing sight for your classmates, but now it was just sad seeing such bubbly personalities beat themselves up over nothing.

And that’s why they came up with the movie night.

Your friends forced you to sit next to your crush which made you more anxious than embarrassed. The reason behind your anxiety was your quirk which resembled Tsuyu’s in a way – to put it bluntly, she was a frog and you were a cat.

The sole problem with your quirk was that whenever you got too excited you’d slightly lose control over it which resulted in happy tail wiggling. So all in all you were afraid that you (or better said your tail) would end up showing and disturbing Kirishima.

You wanted to escape, but thanks to your classmates who were pretty much pushing you further towards your crush there was no escape...

——

“Yes punch him that’s what he deserves!“

The moment you put on the movie it was as if your worries never existed in the first place. Your whole class was watching an action movie, ate some snacks and overall had a good time.

But soon your enthusiasm started to take a toll on your body. Your eyelids grew heavy, the times you yawned increased and before you even started to nod off a few times.

Of course the people who sat beside you noticed and Mina (as the good friend she was) gently pushed you towards Kirishima so that you could fall asleep on his shoulder and not hers.

The moment your head touched his shoulder he almost had a heart attack. At first he thought that you were still awake, but hearing your deep breaths proved him otherwise.

Kirishima’s concentration was now fully on you. He figured that this would be a one time chance so not savoring it would be his biggest mistake.

The boy began noticing small things about you which he would never have outside of this situation. The length and form of your lashes fitted you just right, the perfectly formed nose, the beautiful lips ...

Every single facial feature of yours was perfect in his eyes, but there was one unexpected thing that made him blush the moment he had heard it.

She’s...purring in her sleep...?

Considering your quirk it shouldn’t have been such a big surprise, but the fact that you (his crush) were so comfortable in his presence that you’d even purr was the happiest moment in his entire life.

That was at least until you almost fell off his shoulder. Luckily Kirishima caught you before your sleeping form even had the chance to collide with his muscular thighs and wake you up in the process. He ended up gently laying your head down on his lap instead, earning himself a silent whistle from Kaminari.

He enjoyed the situation he was in of course, but the fact that the movie was slowly coming to an end made him so unbelievably sad. Waking you up and explaining the situation was something he wasn’t looking forward to, Kirishima wanted to stay like that instead.

“Kirishima, we’re leaving (Y/N)-chan in your hands!”

“What..? B-But wait I-“

“Ha, that’s on you shitty hair!”

As soon as the credits started rolling the whole class got up and abandoned Kirishima, hoping that at least now one of you would finally make the first step.

He was finally alone with you and thinking that he’d have to wake you from your peaceful nap hurt him more than the thought of having to explain the situation to you. Having your head resting on his thighs while you purred softly with each breath, had his heart beating hard against his chest.

Kirishima needed a while until he decided upon a method to wake you up.

He placed his big hand on top of your head and gently began caressing it while whispering out your name as soft as he possibly could.

“Hey (Y/N)...wake up...please”

After a few gentle strokes you were awake and terribly confused. The movie’s credits were rolling from the right to the left, your head was resting on something firm but soft at the same time while a big hand was resting on your head.

It took you some seconds to realize what was going on and when you did, you almost head-butted him.

“K-Kirishima! I’m so s-sorry for falling asleep on your lap, i-it must’ve been quite uncomfortable, right..?”

The boy looked at you but didn’t listen to any of your apologies, instead he just took your hands in his own and looked deep into your eyes.

Not confessing to you out of embarrassment and slight fear was one thing, but watching you degrade yourself thinking so negatively was another thing. He decided that hating him would be better than you hating yourself.

“(Y/N), stop it. Don’t you dare apologize for something like that. I didn’t mind it at all and if you ask me...I have never been more comfortable in my entire life. In fact...I wouldn’t mind if things like that started happening more often.”

The moment he said that it took you some time to comprehend what was hidden behind those words.

“K-Kirishima...do you li-“

“I have a crush on you (Y/N)! I’ve always had one, but..I was too afraid to tell you. Too afraid of my feelings ruining our friendship.”

The silence that followed was torture for him and it sadly made his fears multiply by each passing second. You on the other hand were simply in disbelief that the person whom you’ve had a crush on for so long felt the same way about you.

“I’m sorry, maybe this wasn’t the right time and judging by your reaction...I-I shouldn’t be expecting an answer.”

Kirishima slowly got up and began walking away in shame while you started panicking internally. There was no way in hell you’d let him walk away after finding out that he felt the same way about you, but how could you stop him..?

The red haired boy had almost reached the staircase when he suddenly heard the iconic starting sequence of the movie you had just watched.

He slowly turned his head and now it was you who looked into his eyes.

You were holding the remote control so tight that your knuckles were slowly turning white, the blush on your face had almost become as red as his hair, the TV behind you was now replaying the movie and you would’ve never expected yourself to say the next thing you just said.

“Since both of us apparently would like moments like these to appear more often...let’s rewind it.“

I like you too - Tetsutetsu x reader

Being the class after the famous class 1-A was hard. You guys were constantly standing in their shadow so of course the urge to compete was greater than anything else.

Some of your classmates attempted to surpass a certain person and some attempted to even take on the whole class, but you were neither.

Your focus was lying somewhere else entirely.

Since some months ago you actually fell in love with your classmate Tetsutetsu. The reason behind your crush was actually quite the simple one.

Your homeroom teacher Vlad King had asked you to bring him some documents after class had ended.

In your enthusiasm, you completely overestimated yourself and went ahead carrying the heavy stacks of paper on your own, soon enough though your body began signalizing you that it had reached its limit. Stubborn little you on the other hand just continued moving on until your legs gave out beneath you and you almost fell face flat on the floor...almost.

“Hey (Y/N), you ok?”

You immediately recognized the deep voice that was calling out to you, so you looked up to confirm your suspicions...and they were right.

The person who had caught you and shielded you from a nasty fall was none other than Tetsutetsu.

Embarrassed by the whole situation you began stuttering countless ‘thank you’s and ‘sorry’s to the silver-haired boy who awkwardly nodded a few times.

When you attempted to resume your walk to the teachers’ lounge though that’s when he blocked your path.

“Don’t tell me you intend to continue carrying these papers on your own...”  

Before you could even protest or ask what he meant by that, Tetsu just went ahead and took almost all of them as he started to walk towards the teachers’ lounge.

Since then whenever you needed help with something he’d be the first one to help you out or ask if you were going to be alright on your own.

And that’s basically the backstory to it...

——

“Come on (Y/N) are you even listening to me?”, Kendo asked you silently as she gently nudged your side, her action causing you to jump a little in the process.

“S-Sorry I got distracted for a second, could you perhaps run this by my one more time..?”, you asked with the sweetest tone you could muster.

She let out a tired sigh and pointed towards the TV.

“I asked which team you think is going to win the fight.”

What team..? And what fight?

You were completely overwhelmed by her simple question so you tried to access the situation you were in right now as calmly and undetected as you possibly could.

When you saw your precious classmates all chilling and eating different snacks while all of their gazes rested on your shared dorm TV it immediately clicked for you.

Class 1-B had finally surpassed class 1-A and even if it was a simple maths test, your whole class had celebrated it as if it was some kind of festive holiday. After countless votings you guys decided to organize a movie night.  

Upon directing your whole attention to the TV once more, you finally realized that you’ve already seen that movie.

No wonder I was daydreaming…

With a barely audible sigh, you leaned back on the couch and relaxed.

——

Tetsutetsu was so engrossed with the movie that the moment something plopped down on his shoulder he almost threw the bowl of popcorn he was holding on to.

That sudden scare immediately pissed him off.

“Ok, so what the hell do yo-”

His words got stuck in his throat the instant he saw who actually scared him that badly.

Right now he was facing your peacefully sleeping face, but that wasn’t all.

“A-Are you...purring?”, he whispered as silently as he possibly could - afraid that he’d wake you and expose that cute fact he had just found out about you.

Much to his dismay your friend Kendo had also noticed that you were sleeping and had glared at him while whispering the words ‘if you wake her, I’ll kill you’.

After that threat, he made sure that whatever he did, it would be as if he was walking on eggshells.

At first, Tetsu wanted to move you aside, but the sight of you just sleeping and cutely purring away was tearing at his heartstrings.

Thanks to you he just couldn’t concentrate on the last quarter of the movie, the boy was glancing back and forth between your sleeping form and the TV.

And then finally..

The credits!

The silver-haired boy was so excited about the end of the movie that he forgot about you for a moment and let his shoulder slip. Luckily his reflexes were quick enough and he caught you just before your head hit his firm thighs. Moving you back up would be too risky for him so the only way right now, was to let your head rest on his legs.

When all of his classmates began standing up and leaving, he began panicking.

“Hey! Why are you guys leaving me alone? Won’t anyone help me move her, or at least wake her up?!”

His question wasn’t as loud as he’d intended it to be (thanks to Kendo’s warning from before), but even she was as uncooperative as all the others despite being your friend and that surprised him.

In a matter of seconds the two of you were left behind.

Alone…..finally.

You see, Tetsutetsu wasn’t the type of guy who’d show his feelings, especially when he was uncertain if the person opposite of him shared them as well.

That’s how he was with you.

He may be a slight tsundere, but he wasn’t stupid. Tetsutetsu had noticed the slight change in behavior every time he offered you his help or even went up to talk to you. That boy knew that you at least felt something when you were around him and even if he was too embarrassed to say it out loud, Tetsu still couldn’t betray his heart.

“Y’know (Y/N)...that day I helped you with the books wasn’t a coincidence.”

His words were silent. A barely audible whisper. Meant just for your ears and your ears only.

“It may sound funny to you, but...the way you stubbornly challenged your body to keep on moving made me realize, just how strong you actually are.”  

His big hand ran through your hair. The touch of his fingers, gentle.

“I’ve noticed the small glances you give me when we’re in class and you just don’t know how many times I’ve actually wanted to return them. Return them with the same affectionate but gentle demeanor as yours.”

One of his fingers brushed a strand of your hair behind your ear.

“Hey…(Y/N)...?”

He remains motionless, making sure that you’re still asleep as Tetsu then slowly bends down.

“...I like you”

The boy straightens himself back up slowly in order to make sure that there was nobody in the vicinity that could’ve heard or seen that. Unfortunately, he completely missed the small smile on your lips.

“I like you too.”

[seralyra]

Herding Wolves Chapter 1

Summary: It‘s early spring and Jaskier is looking to reunite with Geralt again when a white wolf with suspiciously amber eyes blocks his path. The bard lets himself be dragged through the woods by an obviously cursed Witcher only to get the shock of his life when he is led to two other wolves. One of which is badly injured.

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Decided to finally copy what I have of my fic onto tumblr, cause I’ve been posting fanart and stuff for it, so I might as well put the fanfic here too XD And it’s good posting practice

It’s also on AO3 if you wanna read it there.

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The frost turning the streets into a slippery mess was slowly retreating, birds beginning to chirp merrily outside his window in the mornings, hoping to attract a mate. Spring was waking up the land like a soft kiss from a lover and with it Jaskier too became restless.

He had wintered in Oxenfurt as he was wont to do, relishing in the often bright minds of his students, the good wine and food. The sheer artistic chaotic energy that enveloped the city at all times helped to keep the melancholy at bay, which always seemed to creep up on him in the darkest hours of the year.

But now as the first leaves presented themselves on the trees Jaskier felt his energy levels rise. His fellow professors noticed, scoffing at him with amused smiles. Like a bird, they said. Ready to migrate back to the road for the summer. They didn‘t understand the appeal, but didn‘t begrudge him for his habits. He always brought a fresh wind to the academy, but would he stay too long they‘d probably have to throw him out the next window or something.

He was barely managable while subdued because of the cold. They didn‘t want to be around him when he was at his brightest, just knowing the academy would desolve into chaos in weeks if he ever decided to stay for the summer. Or burn down. Probably both.

So it was in everyones best interest that he left to search for his muse as soon as the roads were crossable again. And he went, singing and happily strumming his lute with a spring to his step that didn‘t disappear even after hours of walking.

Bright blue eyes shone as he took in the beauty around him, greedily soaking up the still rather weak rays of the sun. He travelled light as always and stopped in every village no matter the size, playing his songs and holding an ear out for rumors about a Witcher.

He travelled along the Pontar river, passing Rinde and was on his way to Murivel, when he once again had to set up camp in the wilderness.

Jaskier tried to avoid doing so whenever he wandered the roads alone. It was one thing sleeping in the open with a Witcher at his side, or even with a group of travellers. It was very much different when he was on his own. Much more dangerous, to be exact. Despite running after a Witcher for over ten years now he was still but a mere bard with only a lute and a dagger to defend himself.

Oh he was positively wicked with a dagger, that was for sure. And his lute was surprisingly sturdy (probably elven magic) and just as useful as a club as it was as an instrument. But both of these facts wouldn‘t protect him from a group of bandits or trained military men.

Or a pack of wolves for that matter.

Jaskier flinched when he heard the first howls, far too close for comfort. He had half a mind to pack his things and try his luck elsewhere, but it had already gone dark, the crackling fire the only reliable light source. So he could only sit there and hope the wild animals would shy away from the flames.

Once again he wished that he had the senses of his dear mutated friend. Being able to smell threats from a mile away was super convenient when having to set up camp in an unfamiliar forest. Thankfully he hadn‘t encountered any beast while out foraging.

Trying to keep his racing heart under control he took the kettle away from the flames and poored himself a mug of strong herbal tea. A knack he had developed during his time lecturing in Oxenfurt. Damn he was getting old if he had already swapped his evening wine with tea. Frowning he tried to make out his face in the dark water and was debating if he should take out his small mirror to check for grey hairs, when something huge, white and furry jumped into the camp with barely a noise made.

Jaskier would forever deny the high squeak he let out. The mug went flying, watering the plants as the bard scrambled to his feet, grabbing his lute and holding it out in front of him like a sword.

The white wolf stood on the other side of the camp fire. It was huge, easily coming up to Jaskiers hip and it scowled at him as if he was offended by Jaskiers choice of weapon. It let out a low huff, the very picture of being unimpressed.

It was the familiar behavior, the golden eyes, but most importantly the obvious wolf medaillon that made Jaskier lower his impromptu weapon.

„Oh no, you don‘t get to look at me like that. You know my lute can pack a perfectly good punch. And has a longer range than my dagger. It‘s a perfectly sensible choice of weapon! And anyway you have no ground to criticise me given that I‘m the on currently with two opposable thumbs! What happened?“

He had placed his lute back on the ground and rounded the fire to get to his friend as he talked, not for a second leaving the beast out of sight. Sure it looked and behaved like Geralt, but that could very much also be a ruse. He would never hear the end of it if he accidently got mauled by an animal because he had mistaken it for his friend.

Letting the wolf sniff his hand first he only received a short warning growl when he carded his fingers through the thick fur. Jaskier smiled when he felt Geralt push into the touch afterwards, pointedly looking in the other direction. The attention of wandering hands searching for any injuries soon proofed to be too much however. Geralt danced away from him with a bark and scratched at the ground.

„Alright, alright no more touching. Sorry for being worried about you.“ Throwing his hands in the air he stood again.

The plan had been to go back to his bag and search for some leftover jerky for his friend, maybe play the lute afterwards and then in the morning start to puzzle out the mystery that was his wolf turned friend. But Geralt would have none of that as it seemed. He barked at him again, urgent, something like desperation in his tone. And when Jaskier only looked at him incomprehending the wolf bolted forward, snatching Jaskiers fine silk sleeve and pulled.

Jaskier bent over, caught off guard and off balance, not captured arm flaying around in an attempt to not face plant into the dirt.

„Geralt!“

The wolf barely gave him time to find his footing again, pulling again which forced Jaskier to take another step in the direction Geralt wanted him to go.

„Okay! I get it, I get it, you want to show me something. Can‘t it wait till morning, though? I can‘t see in the dark like you can, you know!“

A growl answered him. Geralt let go of his sleeve, instead circling him to be able to push him from behind.

„Fine! Demanding and rude as ever I see. Lead the way then.“

With the reassurance given that Jaskier would follow, the wolf shot off with a bark. „Geralt wait! Human eyes! I can‘t see shit!“

The glare that was sent his way whenever he stumbled over a root or nearly ran into a tree because of the effort to keep up made Jaskier want to hit the man turned animal. As if it was his fault that he couldn‘t see in the dark! Really, the nerve.

They, or rather Jaskier, stumbled through the night for what felt like hours. Together with the exhaustion that always came with a day of walking and the late hour the bard was starting to get downright cranky. Between heavy breaths (Geralt didn‘t deem it necessary to slow down for his handicapped companion) he voiced his displeasure, cursing everything from pushy Witchers, to crazy mages and weak human eye sight.

Until they reached a well hidden assembly of boulders, crumbled in a way that made for a natural overhang.  Jaskier clicked his mouth shut suddenly not so sure anymore if the White Wolf at his side really was his Witcher friend. Was there a monster that could lure people out by disguising itself as cursed friends in need? If so that was a very stupid hunting strategy. Even if he had fallen for it.

The reason for his brief resurfacing of self-preservation instinct were the two wolves laying under the overhang. One was about as huge as Geralt and must have been some sort of lighter colour. Jaskier couldn‘t really tell if it was a shade of grey or brown. What he could tell was that the wolf was curled around another, smaller one that was definitely black as coal.

The White Wolf nudged him forward with a low whine. And as Jaskier let himself get pushed closer he saw the reason for the urgency. The black wolf was laying in a pool of blood, several arrows burried deep in his hide. Three cracked and knawed at ones lay not too far away. An indicator that his packmates had tried to wrench them out before looking for aid. The wounds that came from that wouldn‘t be a pretty sight, Jaskier was sure.

The wolf was puffing out air from wheezing lungs and that definitely didn‘t sound good either. Even with Witcher healing Jaskier understood that time was of the essence should a lung or other important organ have been hit.

Both foreign wolves tensed as Jaskier came closer and the bard halted in his steps as the bigger one of them rumbled a low warning growl. An answering, even louder and more impressive one came from Jaskiers side, followed by an exasperated bark.

The grey or brown one whined, snout pressing against the head of his injured pack mate, who was watching Jaskiers every move with a sort of wary resignation, ears held flat and tail tugged between his hindlegs.

It was a truly adorable yet sad sight and Jaskier didn‘t care anymore if these were Witchers or wild animals or monsters. He would help, if it was the last thing he did.

„It‘s alright. I‘m Geralts friend. You know the humble bard, who graced a ride along. You have to have heard my hit debut Toss a Coin somewhere in your travels!“ That earned him a rumble that sounded almost like a groan from the black one and an unimpressed stare from the greyish one. Which Jaskier decided to ignore. „I‘m here to help. As long as you promise not to bite my hand off when I‘m starting to treat that. Geralt? Be a dear and go back to my camp, bring me my bag, I‘ll make a fire in the meantime so I can see what I‘m doing. And Blacky?“ The black one outright snarled at him. „Oh prideful one, I see. We‘ll think about fitting names later. Anyway don‘t bleed out on me while I‘ll prepare everything, okay?“

His eyes had adjusted as best as possible to the meager light trickling into the forest from the stars and moon above. The circumstances weren‘t the best, but he had always had an affinity for fire, so this one was lit in no time. He kept up a running commentary while he worked, mostly to calm himself.

The two wolves didn‘t move, but kept watching him with their golden eyes and Jaskier was seriously doubting the soundness of his idea to send Geralt away. He didn‘t know these two. Heck he wasn‘t even entirely sure if they were really transformed Witchers or not.

Jaskier wanted to help. He really did. He also wanted to keep his hands and throat intact, though. He needed both for making noise! He couldn‘t just start whistling songs should some maw liberate him of his vocal cords. Not that he would be able to do even that should one of the wolves (probably the uninjured one) decide to rip out his throat. He‘d be dead then. And dead bards can‘t tell any tales whatsoever.

Despite these worries Jaskier inched towards the overhang and knelt down a few inches away from them once the fire was set. Close enough that he could touch the smallest ones flank, should he dare to stretch his arm out all the way.

In the firelight he was able to make out more. The uninjured wolf was mostly a dirty brown with a few darker streaks of fur here and there. He was scarred, three marks running down his face, twisting one side of his mouth into a permanent snarl. The other one was just as morbidly decorated. A fine vertical line trailing up and down one of his eyes. Not to mention the dozen scars only partly hidden by thick fur.

„Someone did quite a number on you, huh?“ Jaskier muttered, shuffling closer still and letting his hands hover over the wounds as he rattled off what damage he saw and what he would need to treat it. „You wouldn‘t happen to have one of your potion bags around? Would potions even work for you right now? What with the different build and all-“

The brown one sneezed at him, lifting his head enough to shake it before nosing at his injured companion again. Jaskier couldn‘t help but smile at the adorable sight.

„Right, no potions either way I presume that was what this was supposed to mean. Now-“

At that moment Geralt sprinted back into the camp again. How he could be so big and yet so silent was beyond the bard. But then that had been a mystery even before the man had been turned into an animal.

He had Jaskiers bag dangling between his teeth and trodded over, tail tugged low with barely concealed anxiety.

„Thank you. Now little wolf please don‘t bite my hand off. I‘ll have to remove the arrows and that will hurt.“

He waited after he said that. He had gotten another snarl at the new nickname, but after that the dark one swept his gaze over to Geralt, who had come to stand on Jaskiers right side, tense as a bowstring.

They were locked in some kind of staring contest, while the brown one shuffled nervously behind his kin. In the end Geralt won the arguement. The black one gave a low whine and settled, head facing away from Jaskier, yet his visible yellow eye watched every move.

Jaskier didn‘t need the nudge from his friend to understand that he was allowed to go on. He appreciated it nonetheless.

Pulling the arrows out was a horrible business, worse than cleaning and dressing the wounds afterwards. He warned the wolf in his care of each move he made, narrating the whole process in a low, soothing voice he usually only reserved for traumatized children or sleep deprived Witchers waking up from nightmares.

When all was said and done the adrenalin had left his system once and for all and his eyelids were drooping. The thought of trudging back through the dark to get to his bedroll, probably to get lost along the way, was not an option. So he flopped onto a grassy bit near the fire and let sleep claim him.

He wondered if the Witcher wolves would still be there in the morning.

_______________________________________________________

Note: Gonna post a chapter every other day so as not to spam you guys until I’ve caught up to the AO3 version. Note that the fic is still ongoing. Current status: 7 chapters complete, chapter 8 in progress.

Feel free to leave prompts and I’ll see if I can work them into the story~

[waokevale]

The "DARK" Secret - Chapter 3

[Sorry guys, I don't really have the time and will for there to be a fanart under each and every chapter...! :/ ]

Time had has passed pretty quickly for Dee.

Both of the Young twins grew.

Too fast for his liking as he didn't even get to turn around and the twins now both turned 15 as they were now full-time Dark Sides.

Them and the Light Sides weren't much of friends though...

The Dark sides did despised the Light sides a lot, but Roman....He didn't despise them.

He hated them. 

He hated the way they acted, especially Patton. He seemed so...fake and suspicious.

Something seemed so fishy about this guy....He couldn't quite figure it out, yet.

Though Roman did like his host, Thomas. He wanted to get on his 'good' side and also to keep an eye out on those....other sides, just in case they were planning to do something ever.

Then...And idea struck him.

Maybe he could blend in with them and spy on them! Yes!

That way he could get the attention of Thomas and one day...maybe even free his brother, Ethan and Remy!

But he also needed to tell Deceit about the whole plan....

But first, Remus.

When he told his brother the plan, the other started energeticly clapping with an impressed and hopeful look on his face.

-"Wow! That's a great plan bro! Maybe it would work if those idiots were dumb enough-"

But then he was cut off by Deceit himself.

-"Who are those idiots you are talking about, the light sides I suppose?" Ethan plainly asked.

-"Ummm, yeah. I sort of have.... ugh..."

Roman stuttered.

-"Ro-Ro wants to spy on the Light sides to see what they are up to and maybe soon enough snuck us in Thomas's life!" Remus finished, still very excited, while Deceit's jaw basically dropped in either shock or surprise before loud:

-"WHAAAAAT?! Why would you- Roman! Do you know how dangerous it is?! What if they'll caught you?! What if something bad happens to you?! Oh god, I couldn't imagine what Patton would do if he found out...." Ethan seemed very paranoid or rather scared of the idea Roman just gave him.

-"Calm down, Dee-Dee. I'll be fine, I promise.

Besides, I've played acting with you guys thousands of times to actually be skilled enough to not get caught."

Deceit signed heavily before saying:

-"Roman...This is not theater or some sort of a game, this is much more serious and dangerous, I'm not sure If you could actually manage to do it...."

-"But Dee! I know what I'm doing! I'd be just fine, I swear!

Besides I'm the more good-looking twin anyway so they might let me in!" Roman of course then added the last part on purpose.

"WAIT WHAT?! Who said you are hotter than me?!"

Remus argued and soon enough it became a silly quarrel they had.

It was never too serious, neither was this time.

-"Guys, guys YOU ARE BOTH EQUALLY HOT SO SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Ethan yelled tiredly, not thinking 'straight' ahead of what was he saying.

The twins both imidiately turned their heads in the Deceitful trait's direction before smirking, as Ethan slowly realized what he had just said, his human half turning red from the embarassment as his snake half was painted with equal amount of dark green blush.

He already knew they won't stop teasing him about it for the next month at least.

-"So you think we are hot?" - Roman laughed while playfully winking back at the snake side.

-"Awww Dee-Dee. I see your two D's are getting turned on by the both of us?" Remus added while they started laughing and soon enough ended on the floor, as Deceit's embarrassment turned into anger, there could be heard two loud slaps in the air.

-"Bastards!" He yelled, frowning and running out of the room.

Then there was a queit, barely possible to hear sob from the snake-looking side.

Both of the twins faces from hysteric turned into sad one's in no time.

They had clearly upset Ethan, forgetting he was fragile about this topic specifically.

They decided to form Dee's favorite cookies and some juice out of thin air and go apologize.

They weren't just any clueless teenagers after all.

As they knocked on the door there could be heard a miserable voice saying:

-"What do you want...?" 

Which made the twins even more sad and guilty.

-"Ethy we came to apologize...Please forgive us, we're sorry. They said in unison like they always did, when they thought the same thing, which wasn't rare.

After a little while of silence they decided to give up and put the board with food outside his door and as soon as they started walking back, the door opened.

-"Okay, I forgive you, you goofballs." Ethan smirked playfully which made the other two start beaming again with happiness as they both threw themselves at him as he gave out a shocked yelp.

They all collapsed on the floor, laughing after a few seconds.

As they did, Roman decided to boop Deceit on the nose receiving a small *blep* from the other as he began to get "angrier."

Not seriously angrier this time though, it was like a "tantrum anger".

But it was all a trick because as soon as Roman closed his eyes he was being attacked by tickles from the other side.

His brother was on Dee's side this time and soon enough they defeated Roman who was currently hysterically crying from the so called "torture".

-"H-h-ow d-d-ha-ha-re y-you b-bropff-brother! I-I thought we- hahaha-were-on-the-haha-same-t-team!"

-"I changed sides to help Dee-Dee!"

After the little bonding, they got up as Roman's face got serious. Remus knew what he already had in his mind so he frowned a little from ruining the moment.

-"Dee? About the earlier topic-" Roman started.

-"You can go." Deceit replied before the prideful side could finish.

-"W-wait, really?" Both creativities looked very surprised at the snake's answer.

-"Yes....Just please, be careful. I will never forgive myself if you'll get hurt or manipulated" he said sadly.

The twins tucked him in more tighter hug this time and tried making him feel better.

-"Thank you Dee so much! Now I know that that's a lot of trust to put in someone, I love you so much!" Roman exclaimed happily.

-"No, thank you guys, I'm so lucky I have you here." Ethan smiled softly as he always did.

Hearts of the both of the twins had already turned into jelly.

It even worked on Remy.

This one smile could bring peace to the whole world!

How couldn't the light sides just see it?!

[sybright]

My Favorite Cats Ships

Okie dokie, @whitmerule wanted to know my main ships/pairings and I knew I’d have to make a post dedicated to this at some point so here it is lol (also sorry this is so long). My “main” universe, which is what all of my main pairings are in, is based on the ‘98 film for the most part (although really all of my universes are based on the ‘98 film, just with alterations here and there). 

Edit: My preferences have changed somewhat, so I’ve edited this list to reflect my current feelings towards certain pairings. This means that I’ve deleted some pairings that I don’t like much anymore, and have added some new ones :). All of these ships are in no particular order btw.

Main Pairings:

Tuggoffelees 

-I know it’s super popular and there’s loads of content on them, but I still stan. I don’t love them AS much as I used to, but they were my first ship in this fandom, and therefore are still very important to me. 

Demebombastrap 

-In terms of individual pairings, I really like Demelurina and Bombastrap on their own, but I like them best all together. I used to be quite fond of Demestrap by itself, but I’ve gotten pretty tired of that ship over time personally (obviously nothing against people who like this pairing a lot, kudos to y’all who love Demestrap ^^), so I’m not that big a fan of them on their own anymore. In order of the individual pairings I like best: Demelurina first, Bombastrap second, and Demestrap not so much.

Skimblegus (Skimbleshanks/Asparagus Jr., NOT Gus the theatre cat, I see the two of them as separate characters in most productions).

Jellydots (Sweet lesbian grandmas <3).

Tumblejem 

-This is my self-projection asexual pairing, leave me alone lol. They give me bestie vibes and I love that for them <3.  

Platoriateazer 

-This is a bit of a rarepair, but it is one of my main ships, I see Teazer and Plato as platonic partners and Tori as their mutual gf. Alternatively, I like Victeazer and Platoria on their own as well, although I like Victeazer a bit more than Platoria, but I prefer them all together.

And that’s about it for my “main” pairings, here’s a list of my alternate pairings/rarepairs that I love too much for my own good.

Alternate Pairings/Rarepairs:

Demandra 

-No longer my main blog’s url, but they have their own blog now and therefore are still ridiculously important to me XD. This is my fave rarepair, and might also be even MORE of a self-projection asexual pairing for me than they were before. I’ll say it once, this is my ultimate comfort pairing. 

Plonzostrap (Plato/Alonzo/Munkustrap, alternatively, I like Alonzostrap and Plonzo on their own as well, although I haven’t put that much thought into Munklato on its own).

Platoricopat (Cats Zurich got me obsessed with this concept, and @whitmerule’s gifs are are just *chef’s kiss*).

George/Etcetera/Electra 

-I don’t really have a ship name for this, and also this particular pairing is very complicated and I’ll try to explain it as best I can. George and Etcetera are romantic partners, Etcetera and Electra are queer-platonic partners (I see Electra as aromantic), and George and Electra are platonic partners. This is technically a main pairing for me, but it’s sort of rare and complicated in its dynamics so I put it down here. Also, I adopted the hc that George is a Pollicle btw.

Oh and just as an aside, I also really like Elecctera and Etceorge on their own, but I probably slightly prefer Elecctera, I just love the queer-platonic besties vibes of them <3. 

Mungocavity (This is in a scenario where Macavity is less evil and more of a dumbass, but I really like this pairing. It would be one of my main pairings if my main universe Macavity wasn’t complete shit).  

Jemtoria

-One of my newer ships, I usually see Tori and Jem as being somewhat far apart in age, so this is in a scenario where Jem’s a bit aged up and Tori’s a bit aged down. I love everything about this pairing. Considering how much Jem and Tori interact with each other in the show, this ship has so much potential to me. They’re just so soft and they make me really happy <3. 

Tuggoffeleteazer

-Once upon time I didn’t think I’d ever ship Tugger or Misto with really anyone but each other, but times change. Initially, I got very interested in the idea of Rumpletugger (which I still quite like on it’s own), but then later became intrigued by the idea of Mistoteazer (and all the shenanigans they’d get up to, both being mischievous and chaotic), so of course this led to me just putting all three of them together XD. I love this trio so much, they just give “bestie vibes ONLY” type of energy, and feel like a super chaotic friend group, and that makes me really happy. 

Bombbella

-I’m not even sure how to explain what led me to becoming so attached to this ship XD. I had seen people mention it being a neat concept in passing, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actually truly ships them. I basically got into this ship through my “Jellicle leader Griz” au thing, which is an au where Griz is the oldest of Deuteronomy’s children and was expected to become the next Jellicle leader. She’s much younger in this au than how I typically see her, so the newer Griz design fits well in this scenario. I just got really into the idea of Griz and Bomba being tragic ex-lovers. 

They dated for a long time in their teens, broke up for a few years, and then got back together again when they had matured, and then Griz went and abandoned the tribe (as well as Bomba) to see the world and pursue her dream of being a star. Griz returned eventually, but the damage had been done, and Bomba was far from ready to forgive her. In the end though, she does forgive Griz, as does everyone else, but then Griz goes on to be reborn, and they miss their chance at happily being together. It’s just all in all a really fun concept for me to play around with, and has so much angst potential. 

Jellycass

-Not a new ship, quite the opposite actually. This is a ship that I usually don’t think much about (hence why it wasn’t here when I first made this list), but whenever I do, I always feel at peace inside lol. I can’t for the life of me find the post that got me into this ship (trust me, I have searched ALL over tumblr for it, I looked through both Jellylorum’s and Cassandra’s ENTIRE tags and still couldn’t find it), but I saw a post when I was first getting into the Cats fandom that talked about how Jelly and Cass would be this sort of “odd couple” that the tribe didn’t really understand, but clicked super well with each other for some reason. 

Even though I only ever saw that one post on them for a long time, I grew really attached to the ideas it presented for Jellycass. I like the age gap concept in particular, with my personal idea of it being Cass in her late twenties to early thirties, and Jelly being in her late thirties to early forties. It really heightens the “odd couple” energy of them, and I can see Cass getting along really well with someone older. Troika provides me all the rights for this ship <3. 

Some Extra Stuff:

Even though I like Platoria as an individual ship, and ship them to a degree, I’m not super interested in them. They’re a bit bland for me if I’m being honest. I like seeing them on my dash, but I won’t actively seek out content of them, so please don’t tag me in stuff surrounding them if you don’t mind (obviously this doesn’t apply to their poly equivalent). I used to include Demestrap in this section, but now I’m really not all that fond of them, I really only like them together in a poly scenario, like Demebombastrap or even Demelonzostrap. 

There’s a bunch of ships that I categorize as “I like it, but I don’t ship it,” and that’s where ships like Munkujerrie and Alonzoffelees fall. They’re ships that I enjoy as concepts, and that I would probably read fanfic about if given the opportunity (and like fanart of), but I don’t necessarily ship them. So you don’t need to tag me for them. 

The only ships that I just straight up don’t like, although I have nothing against people who like them, are Tuggerlurina, Mistoria, Skimbledots, and Jellygus, Tuggerlurina being the one I dislike the most. I just scroll past content of them if I see it on my dash, I thought I should probably list them here cause idk, might be useful to @whitmerule to know which ships I really don’t like. 

Note: I don’t see any of the characters I listed here as being biologically related, some people hc Deme and Bomba as sisters, or Etcetera and Electra as being twins, I don’t see this personally (In fact I have a whole bunch of family hcs that I’ll probably save for another post, if anyone even wants to read that lol). 

And now for my favorite 2019 movie pairings (which I also don’t see any of them as being biologically related), because they’re sort of relevant since I’m listing pairings and stuff so I feel like putting them here too:

2019 Movie Main Pairings

Mistoriastraps 

-This is the ONLY scenario where I like Misto and Tori together. I only like it when it’s in the 2019 movie, and only if it’s with Munk, those are my two requirements lol. I think Munktoria and Munkoffelees are really cute too, but I don’t care for them that much, I like them best all together.

Demandra (I see their relationship very differently in the movie, and I prefer their stage-show relationship, but as always, I love them). 

Tantojerrie 

-I know they don’t really interact in the movie, but I saw people talking about them as a ship on here, and I just think they’d be really cute. Technically Tanto is implied to be kitten age in the movie, but I imagine this as a post-movie, next Jellicle Ball type scenario. I see Tanto as being on the cusp of adulthood, where she’ll probably be an adult at the next Jellicle Ball, and I see Jerrie as being a very young adult, so they’re not far apart in my mind (plus I see Jellicles, being cats and all, aging differently than humans, so this isn’t as odd to me as it might be to other people).

2019 Movie Alternate Pairings:

These are just my alternate pairings for Misto, Tori, and Munk if Mistoriastraps doesn’t happen lol:

Tuggoffelees

-I’ve adopted the hc that they’re ex-boyfriends in the 2019 movie, and I like to imagine that they’ve sorted things out post-movie and got back together.

Victeazer

Skimblestrap

That’s about it for my ships. Thank you for reading if you got this far lol. 

[universallywriting]

Drive Home

Steven's breath puffed in the air as he came to sit beside her, feet crunching in the frost and pine needles. He was glad they'd planned it the way they did, just cold enough so the Rocky Mountains were dusted with snow. Specks of brown and green covered the mounds that swallowed up the horizon, towering and beautiful, almost touchably close and endlessly far at the same time. Pine trees circled close around them, boulders jutting up from the earth, and he came to sit down on one beside Connie with a smile.

It was odd up in the mountains. Occasionally hikers would pass them by, or a family of tourists, but off the more well-worn trails that was rare. It was still odd for Steven, who so rarely traveled, to see so many people pass him by that he didn’t know the names of. So often he felt like he should see Buck’s familiar deadpan face, or hear Jenny’s laugh from one of the people that passed him by.

But the only familiar face was Connie’s. The thermos of tea he had brought her was hot in the metal flask. When they drove lower, he would switch back to her favorite black teas, carefully measured with swirls of honey and just the right kind of milk to make her smile. But high up in the mountains, the water didn’t boil hot enough.

Just thinking of her face the first morning she’d tried to make them both tea at 10,000 feet was enough to make him smile. The weak brew had made her nose wrinkle up in confusion, baffled at her perfectly measured cup failing, before she burst into giggles and explained the correlation between how water boiled and the altitude.

She was so brilliant. He handed it to her, enjoying the feel of being stupidly in love and out in the world alone with her before murmuring, “How do you feel?”

"Small. But in a good way. You?" She took a deep breath of mountain air, looking over the landscape. He wondered if she felt the same as him, or if we-moved-a-lot Connie never felt that same warm loneliness.

"Same." He smiled and looked back out. Questions about wanting to see familiar faces could be saved for the road home when they were barefoot and bored. “Wish I had come to places like this more often. Oceans are beautiful but... Nothing makes you feel more like a speck than a mountain. It's comforting."

"Just another little person, running across a big marble." She nudged him softly with her free hand. "Gets a little too much when you really see the marble though. I think going out in space can make Earth feel a little too small."

Steven nodded. "Yeah. This is a good middle ground. Earth feels big. I feel small. I like it this way.”

“Why don’t we stay?” Connie asked lightly. “Drive around forever.”

“I could be happy getting lost in these woods,” he agreed, but there was no weight to it. There was no weight to her words either. They swept away in the breeze, tumbling down stone and needles and babbling brooks to the world beneath.

"Me too." Her fingers wrapped tight around the sketchbook in her lap, the cover digging into her skin just at the brink of hurting. "I'm, um... I'm done with it, by the way. With my portfolio. I’ll submit it in the morning."

"That's great!" Steven said, throwing his arm around her shoulders with an eager squeeze. His lips found her temple in a reassuring kiss, seeing the nerves in the stiff lines of her body. "I'm so proud of you. Did the landscapes turn out the way you wanted?"

She opened her sketchbook and Steven eagerly looked over her shoulder, never tiring of the contents. It started with the temple. The morning they left Steven had found her on the beach, wrapped up in a hoodie in the early dawn chill, sketching his home and occasionally sipping at a coffee that had gone cold, and though she had insisted it wasn’t important, he had happily delayed their start until she finished.

Connie flipped to fields of grain. Traveling the midwest had been much less exciting than he expected. Keystone had rolled by and their eyes had glazed over as everything seemed to be the same three trees and two rocks. They had burst into Buckeye and passed through Kansas and had mumbled incoherently about corn while the radio tried to keep them alive and driving. That night they had stared at Connie’s grain drawing with a ghostly horror, neither of them remembering when she had drawn the stuff.

She moved past a drawing of rolling grassy hills. In Nebraska, he had floated to the top of the RV with her. While she drew, he had read about the Great Plains on his phone. They had taken a moment, in warm breeze and isolation, to let tears hit their eyes and cries choke their lungs as they read about what happened to buffalo who had roamed there once. They had whispered about colonies of all kinds, and there was no one around to reassure them, so they took the time to mourn things that might have been.

They had done the same in sand dunes, or close to it. The sketch she passed held more memory than a picture, the grays of her pencil capturing more than just the desert, but him breaking down over Kindergartens sucking life from the earth. Another sketch just after, with a lovely pink flower blossoming on top of a cactus, and he could hear her voice reassuring, “Nothing’s as lifeless as you’d think.”

Connie paused on his favorite, the polar bear she had sketched from the San Diego Zoo. They had spent such a long day there, but when they got to the polar bears she had stopped and gushed about them. The Spirit Morph saga had inspired her to do research, and she rambled facts. Polar bears had terrible success rates, with only two percent of their hunts being successful, did he know? 

He really liked that idea. The largest bear of all, living in such a harsh environment, failed almost all the time. It fumbled and watched as victory slipped away, but it came back to try another day. It survived.

She finished on a sweeping mountain landscape, not too different from the one they sat in now. Connie set her phone next to it, a copy of her finished project next to the rougher draft. "That's the last one," she said quietly, pointing to the screen. "I think it turned out okay."

"It makes Earth look beautiful. I’d put it in a gem brochure," he reassured. “You chose a lot of amazing stuff.”

She bit her lower lip. “I hope so. I tried to choose what a school would think is best, not just the stuff I think is great. The stuff that shows skill, you know?

He kissed her cheek this time, saying, "Any school is going to be lucky to have you. You're amazing, Connie."

"I'm okay," she said, voice very practical about her own skills. Connie looked at him with a little laugh. "I don't know what's scarier - getting rejected or getting in. Mom was mad enough about the world US road trip gap year."

"She got over it! You know, after the meltdown." Steven said, wincing a little at the memory. He had sat behind her, trying to support her as quietly as possible while Priyanka and Connie growled and snapped at one another, each insisting on how the next year should be spent. And, at the end, the tearful apologies, the confessions of fear over the future… He had to admit that it was a relatable feeling, even if no one had fought with him.

"She'll get over this too. Come on. This is what you've always wanted. You're going to be an animator, Connie,” he said, and just saying the word made her eyes go a little wide with hope. 

He remembered her earliest drawings with him, rougher but already so much nicer than his own. He remembered her working through how to draw anime books, silly cat-eared characters with huge eyes. Steven remembered her fumbling beyond that, hours of Tubetube tutorials, crying at the tablet he got her for her birthday, the countless gifts of fanart for his favorite shows. He remembered trembling hands the first time she showed him a comic, with characters he had never seen, because she had snatched them from the air the way he grabbed music.

Steven knew he was tearing up again like he did every time he told her, but he could never hold it back. “It’s what you live for, Connie. It’s what makes you happy. You're going to tell stories."

Connie breathed again, taking in pine and chill and rocks older than even the Crystal Gems by orders of magnitude. The world was big and wide and old, the universe even more so, and usually that made her problems feel small. But nothing could swallow up the fear and doubt today. She took his hand tight in her own.

"This has been amazing. Driving across the country, seeing all these different parts of the world, pitstops to warps so we can see everything Earth has to offer. Steven, I..."  She looked up at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "These past ten months have been the best months of my life. Everyone said we were going to get sick of each other. Your dad gave us that speech about how it was okay to bail. Everyone thought we were going to mess this up but... I'd do this for another year if it wasn't for college."

He was careful not to jostle her phone or sketchbook from her lap as he lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. "I loved this. I love you. No expectations. No scary future. No responsibilities. Just a big journey together.”

“I’m glad you loved it as much as I did,” she said with a smile.

“More than that. I needed it.” He laughed and shook his head. “Connie, I never could have asked for anything better than this. Everything at home was a mess. I’m so tired of all the work and responsibility and wondering what I’m going to do with my life. But this past year I just got to be with you and not be afraid."

"But now we have to go home," she whispered looking at the RV parked behind them. The place where they slept and ate. The place where they made stupid jokes and listened to terrible radio and podcasts. The place where they’d cried and kissed and worked through things they never thought they’d work through. But that was over now, and it loomed like a hearse. “We have to get in there and drive all the way back to Beach City. And then I... I have to wait to see if I get accepted.”

She laughed, cold and bitter, and took a hand to wipe at her eyes. He couldn’t see any tears falling, but Connie felt them stinging. “I’ve messed up on a lot of stuff, Steven. I know I seem smart, but most of it is from studying so hard. I’m not… special. I’m not talented. The odds are good they’re not gonna want me. And if they don't, I guess I'll go be a doctor or something. And, if they do, I..."

I’m screwed either way.

Steven shook his head hard. "You'll be an animator," he insisted. He took the thermos and set it aside, untouched, just so he could take both her hands in his. "You'll do exactly what you've been doing ever since I met you - telling stories. You'll finally get to be who you've always wanted to be."

She winced. "But my mom-"

"Who cares?" Steven said, barely holding back his temper. "We spent a year, just the two of us! You don’t need her to agree."

"Ten months," she corrected softly. "But, you're right. We did."

Steven didn’t like his temper. He didn’t like how angry he got. He didn’t like how easily he could drag Connie into it, drown her in it when they fused. He felt guilty about that. He worried about that a lot, that maybe his anger meant he wasn’t as good of a person as he liked to try to be. He loved Dr. and Mr. Maheswaran, didn’t he? His anger shouldn’t be so burning and flaring when all they wanted was for Connie to be safe.

But his feelings for her parents got tangled in his own, and when he started down that path he felt that little voice hissing that they should leave them alone, and that they could do things on their own, and for once they wanted to live their own lives and forge their own paths, and was it really so much to ask for unconditional support in that?

Steven took a steady breath to calm himself. "She should be in your life. The gems should be in my life. But nobody... Nobody gets to tell you what to do with it. It took me so long to figure that out. I didn't get that making other people happy and hurting yourself to meet their expectations aren't the same thing. I spent my whole life trying to be my mom. I didn't know what to do when I wasn't."

Connie nodded weakly. "I know."

He took her face in his hands, pressing her forehead to hers. "You're not your mom. You never have been. You don’t love rules and coloring inside the lines. You sneak candy into movies and find loopholes in the law and climb giant robots and... And you love books. And comics. And television. You love survival." 

Steven flipped back to the polar bear, gently tapping the page. "You drew this because of the warrior bears in the Spirit Morph Saga, because those books meant everything to you, and you want to make something like that for other people. That’s who you are. You want to inspire people like people who have inspired you."

She closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “I know. But I’m… I don’t know if I…”

“I’ve seen you capture Pearl on a page, and I can see all her determination and all her fear at the same time,” he whispered. “I’ve seen you draw your dad as a superhero, with a goofy flashlight and a big smile, because that’s who he was when you were small. You… You drew me, Connie.”

His thumbs smoothed over her cheeks as he took a shuddering breath. “You drew me the way you love me. It was just me, sleepy in our RV, and I looked peaceful and happy and I was looking outside and… and I could feel the way I love our stupid little rock. I was human and not human and I loved it, Connie. You made me feel so much.”

“I know, Steven. I know you feel the things I make but…” She whimpered, the tears he hadn’t seen before finally rolling. “What if I'm not good enough? What if I reach for Kansas and burn out halfway there?"

Steven hugged her tight, and let her bury her face in his shoulder. They were all alone up there, softly rustling trees holing them up from the terrifying landscape ahead. But there were such beautiful things below, pressed into the pages of Connie’s sketchbook, and it was time to face them all.

“I’ll pick you up.” His face buried in her hair, thoughts of their families fresh in his mind, and there was only one thing to promise, "I'll drive you home. And we'll all love you anyway."

[stebeans]

She-Ra Inspired Actor AU - III

Maya Sanchez as Catra

Taylor Cruz as Adora

Jessica Cho as Glimmer

Marcus Patterson as Bow

A She-ra Actor AU fic where She-ra and the Princesses of Power is a popular tv series and our lovable characters are played by actresses/actors. Inspired by the amazing fanart and concept by @sunzho and @hey_adora on instagram #cayaactorau, see link below and please follow them!

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/cayaactorau/

The Call/Cast Meet

The call that had changed her life had come months ago and even now it hadn’t really sunk in. Maya’s agent, a family friend, had called her with the good news just a few days after Maya’s graduation. She had been at the park, playing with her brothers and the neighboring kids in a game of pick-up baseball, if you could even call it that as it was pretty much a no-rules, all-out game of America’s favorite sport. Remi – Maya’s brother and the youngest of the boys – was catcher and a no-good cheat, who kept poking her in the side every time she went up to bat knowing full well she was ticklish.

Maya had managed to hit what looked to be an infield home run and had been rounding third base and was sprinting to home when her second oldest brother, Rafael, playing pitcher had caught her around the waist. Being much taller and stronger than Maya, Rafael had easily lifted her off the ground and held on tight, laughing loudly in her ear as she tried to squirm out of his hold. “Let me go Raf! You asshole!” she screeched, slapping her brother in the arms and back but Rafael had held on until the shortstop had fired the ball into Remi’s awaiting glove. “You guys suck. So much.” Maya snapped, pulling Rafael’s cap over his eyes when he had finally set her back down on the ground. “You’re so lucky I didn’t kick you where the sun don’t shine.” She hissed, ignoring the way her brothers celebrated the win with their obnoxious dance and their chanting of “Maya’s a sore loser! Maya’s a sore loser!”

Sulking grumpily, Maya had made her way to the bench where she had left her stuff. She had just finished gulping down what was left of her water bottle when her cellphone rang. Digging into the outer pocket of her backpack for her phone, and immediately her heart beat faster when she had caught the caller ID. She had auditioned for a variety of roles leading up to graduation after the epic fail of the She-ra callback. A few had been minor roles for TV, one was for a background character for a movie, but mostly they were commercial roles. Distantly, Maya wondered if she landed that shampoo commercial gig. The casting director had been kind and had even praised her for her natural, long and luscious hair. “Hello? Serena?” Maya answered, wiping the sweat away from her forehead with the back of her hand and hoping she didn’t sound too out of breath from her game.

“You got the part kiddo!” Serena had practically shrieked into her ear, forgoing the typical phone etiquette greeting.

The celebration on the field faded away at Serena’s words. “What?” Maya had landed a few minor commercial roles before but Serena hadn’t even delivered the news with half the excitement as she was now.

“Maya! You got the part!” Serena cheered. “You’re going to be in She-ra!”

“What?” Maya was stunned. “No way! Are you kidding me right now? Did Raf and Remi put you up to this?” Because there was no way in hell did Maya ever imagine landing the lead role in a TV series.

Dazedly, Maya noticed the curious looks her brothers shot her when they caught their names being said. “No Maya! It’s not a joke! You got it kid! You got it.” Serena asserted. “You got the part of Catra!”

Catra.

Catra.

Not Adora than.

Catra may not have been the lead character but still. Catra was a significant role and was infinite better than any of her previous roles combined. Shock and disbelief was fading faster as excitement began to take over. “I got Catra?” Maya whispered delicately. “I’m Catra?” She repeated..

Maya could see the concerned looks her brothers gave her and were quickly trekking towards her. Serena laughed happily on the other end of the phone and Maya was guessing she might’ve been crying a little bit too. Happy tears though. Kind of like the ones gathering behind her eyes now. “Yes.” Serena affirmed behind a quiet sniffle. “You’re Catra.”

“Maya what’s wrong?” Remi asked worriedly as her brothers approached her.

Unable to form words, Maya shook her head and wiped at her tears. “Did someone hurt you?” Remi asked. “Who was it? I’ll quick their ass!”

At the threat Maya laughed behind a half sob-half hiccup. “No! No. It’s nothing like that. It’s Serena.”

At the information both Remi and Raf froze. their eyes scanning the happiness behind their baby sister’s eyes despite the tears and the smile that was tugging on her lips. “Aaaannnddd?” Rafael pressed, anxiety for his sister crawling underneath his skin.

“I got the part.” Maya replied faintly.  “I got the part.” She said a little louder. “I’m going to be in She-ra!” She shouted in excitement, lifting her arms in victory.

There was barely a delay before Remi and Rafael whooped and hollered louder than they had when they won the baseball game. Remi had messed up her hair as he shouted out his congratulations but Maya was too happy to care and when Rafael had picked her up and spun her around the second time that day within the span of minutes, instead of kicking him in the nuts like she wanted to do the first time, Maya laughed and cheered. “I’m going to be in She-ra!”

“Yeah you are!” Rafael hollered.

“Ma-ya! Ma-ya!” Remi chanted, Rafael joining in quickly.

The chanting had caught the attention from the players on either teams and it only took one glance to notice the happiness and excitement emitting from the trio of siblings. It was contagious and it didn’t take long for the others to join in on the chanting as they gathered around the Sanchez’s. News spread quickly between the teams and soon they were all celebrating in Maya’s achievement to her delight and slight embarrassment. During all the commotion Maya had dropped her phone but somehow the call with Serena was set on speaker because Maya could hear her tinny voice chanting along with the others.

These were people who she had grown up with. Neighbors who hosted and attended their summer BBQ’s. Friends and classmates who played pick-up games with her. Kids who she helped babysat. Others who had babysat her. They were a small yet tight-knit community and Maya was happy she was able to share the news with people who cared for her and vice-versa.

“I’m going to be Catra!” She shouted to the darkening sky, now lifted on her brother’s broad shoulder and a wave a cheers followed her exclamation, echoing throughout the field.

That call had been months ago but Maya could recall it as if it was yesterday and it was easily one of the best days of her life. Today, was a different story. Today might just take the cake for being the most anxiety-filled day she had ever experienced. It was infinitely more stressful than any of her past auditions and all those first days of school she had endured.

Her mother had dropped her off with a kiss on her forehead and a genuine “have a good day” at the gates of the studio where the security had been strict. With her bag slung over her shoulder she was quickly directed to one of those golf carts where one of the assistants would courier her to where the cast was meeting for the first time for a table read. Approaching the cart she noticed she wasn’t the only one getting a lift. A short Asian girl, with the coolest rose gold ombre colored hair that Maya had ever seen, sat in the back with her eyes glued to the phone in her hands. She didn’t even seem to notice when Maya approached, taking a seat next to her. “Hi.” Maya greeted shyly, anything to break the awkward silence.

The intimidating girl spared her a quick glance before turning attention back to her phone, scrolling through what Maya guessed was Twitter. “Hey.” Was her blasé reply.

Well. Can’t say she didn’t try. Maya drummed her fingers against the jean-clad thigh, taking the time to take in the scenery around her. DreamFlix wasn’t one of the bigger film production companies but they were certainly gaining popularity in their recent years and their studio lot was the bigger and grander than any lot she had ever stepped foot in. The golf cart weaved past various bodies, buildings, onsite sets and Maya couldn’t help but be amazed. One of the sets they drove past had a hose mounted to a crane where they were testing a rain pour. So. Cool. Her face must’ve betrayed her dorkiness because “First time?”

Maya rushed to close her slacked jaw. Grinning she shrugged. “Yeah. I’ve never been to a studio this big before. It’s amazing. Magical.” Maya added when they passed a group of people dressed up as mystical creatures.

The girl beside her let out a chuckle. “Yeah. It is pretty magical.” She agreed before holding out a hand. “But the novelty kind of wears off when your running late and you’re stuck behind a stampede of trolls and hooved centaurs. I’m Jessica by the way but everyone calls me Jess.”

“Maya.” Maya introduced with a warm smile, taking the offered hand with a gentle shake. “I’m guessing this isn’t your first time here then?”

“I’ve been doing this for a few years now and I had a couple small roles before. I’m mostly in the recording studio as the lead for an animation series but this is my first big gig on a live action series. So I guess I’m seeing things differently this time around.” Jess noted, pointing out where a few guys were heaving a wagon dolly carrying a ten-foot half-built mechanical dragon. “It’s pretty cool looking at everything with new eyes. Though I do know my way around the studio lot. Stick with me and I can show you were they hide all the cookies and the best place to throw a tantrum without anyone knowing.” Jess said with a laugh, her eyes crinkling at the edges and Maya couldn’t believe how she thought this girl was intimidating before.

Maya joined in on Jess’s joke. “Looks like I got myself a tour guide.”

The two of them made small talk, pointing out cool and unusual things from their vantage on the cart as they zipped past sets, giggling and laughing as if they were long lost friends before the they came to a stop in front of a non-descript brown building. It was smaller than the others they had passed but Maya guessed nothing fancy was needed for a table read. After jumping out of her seat, Maya smoothed down her grey oversized t-shirt, making sure it was tucked neatly into her black jeans at the front. She ran a hand through her hair, making sure there were no knots and breathing out a big sigh when she followed Jess to where the cast and crew were gathered.

Just before the assistant can knock on the door and leave them to fend for themselves, Jess reached out and gave a Maya’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry too much. You’ve already gotten the part. You’re going to have to screw up big time to lose your role and something tells me you aren’t the diva type. So just go in there and have fun okay? Today is about meeting the cast members and the production team. Then we’re just going to do a little reading. No big deal right?”

“Right.” Maya nodded, shooting Jess an appreciative smile though she could feel her hands trembling slightly.

The door opened and Maya was ushered in, noting that the room was already filled. She hoped she wasn’t running late. The director, casting director and the producer were easy to pick out as they smiled at their entrance. “Welcome Jessica and Maya. So glad you could make it to today’s table read. We are very excited to have you on our team.” The producer said, smiling kindly while shaking their hands. “Looks like we are just waiting on our star and then we could get this party started but why don’t you ladies help yourself to some refreshments in the meanwhile.”

A fold up table topped with snacks and drinks was set up at the far end of the room while the middle was occupied by a conference table with chairs set up on all sides. It looked barely enough to sit the amount of people in the room. There were maybe thirty people in the room already – and easily this was the largest cast meet Maya ever attended – who were huddled in small groups around the snack table and at the front of the room where it was left open.

Helping herself to a water bottle and some chips Maya took the chance to survey the occupants in the room and was honestly surprised at the diversity of the cast and crew. A good chunk of them were women and of various skin colors too. Am I in the twilight zone or what? This is so amazing. Maya thought, happy to know that she wasn’t going to be one of those “token” characters again. This was already shaping up to be a good show.

It was when Maya had a mouthful of chips did one of the rare guys in the group approached her and Jess. “Hi! I’m Marcus!” He introduced, a cute dimple appearing when he smiled and wow, did he have the nicest set of teeth and softest looking skin ever.

Like the majority of the cast, Marcus was a person of colour, he might actually be the darkest skinned person there, with a hipster afro buzzcut, broad shoulders and a muscular physique that even Maya could appreciate. “How cool is this?” Marcus continued as he stared wide-eyed around the room. “I’ve never been on a show with this much diversity!”

Maya nearly choked on her chips when she laughed earning a concerned look from Marcus and Jess as well as a couple others around her. Thumping her chest, Maya had to practically force the water down her throat. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to laugh. It was just…I was thinking the exact same thing!”

Marcus laughed, patting her on the shoulder. “Well what do you know, great minds do think alike. Or maybe it’s because of our instant connection.” He joked, wagging his eyebrows up and down in exaggeration.

“Okay Romeo, that’s enough.” Jess rolled her eyes before introducing herself and Maya.

Marcus chuckled good naturedly and shook their hands. They fell into a comfortable conversation, talking about their last gigs and past horror stories they had endured and Maya earning baby-cooing noises when she mentioned how she graduated high school before the summer officially started.

“Aww you’re just a baby!” Jess tutted and Marcus busted out laughing.

Pouting and knowing full well it didn’t help out her case, Maya whined out “I am not a baby! And look!” Maya pointed to a nearby cast member. “That girl is like…twelve!” Said girl whirled around to level a death glare at Maya who stammered out a “ But like also, good for her! Very, very impressive.”  Which only set off Jess and Marcus again, with the latter legitimately having to wipe tears from his eyes he was laughing so hard.

“That little girl is Mei Lin and she is probably the greatest child star in the business right now. She isn’t just a baby. She is The baby.” Marcus explained through his bout of laughter.

Maya shook her head. “Fine. Whatever. I’m still not a baby.” She grumbled under her breath as she raised her bottle up to her lips to take a long pull of water only to have it come spluttering back out when she instantly recognized the newest addition stepping past the door threshold.

Coughing and gasping, Maya did her best to wave off Jess’ and Marcus’ concern as she tried to breathe through her choking. Way to be subtle, Sanchez. “Dude! Are you okay?” Marcus inquired, patting her firmly on the back. “Even I know babies don’t choke half as much as you do.”

Blinking back the tears in her eyes from the burning in her nose Maya offered a flimsy thumbs up. “Sorry. Just...wrong pipe. I’m fine.” She lied, cursing inwardly at the look of alarm she was garnering from the majority of the room seeing it was hard to ignore someone who was choking to death.

She met Taylor’s surprised eyes from across the room. “Just peachy.”

[astrablossom]

Dark Desires (NSFW)

Pairing: Oikawa x Fem!Tanaka

Word Count: 7.5k

Summary: "Fine, you're right." She raises a brow and humors him. "It is unfair of me to accuse you without any real experience, even if I still think you're a shitty person. One date and don't try any funny business or I'll beat your ass." A agreement Tanaka soon regrets.

A collab fic worked on by @rocorambles and myself. This is also available on A03

Tanaka's appearance is based off this fanart

Warning: The following fic contains material such as non-con, rape, abuse, yandere, manipulation etc. This is not to encouraged these acts in real life. This is only a work of fiction.

Oikawa locked up the gym doors with an exhausted sigh. It had been a tough practice and he was looking forward to going home and collapsing on his bed. At the thought of rest, he happily hums when all of a sudden something collides with his head and he crashes face-first into the ground. The impact was hard and left him crouching on the floor, gingerly holding his nose. He scowls and whips his head around, ready to give whoever snuck upon him a piece of his mind, but stops and smirks at the sight of Tanaka Ryonosuke glaring down at him, hands on her hips.

She stood above him and Oikawa whistled in appreciation. "White panties are my favorite, Tanaka-chan. How did you know?" It takes a second for his words to register, but then Tanaka is jumping back, hands clutching the hem of her short skirt down, while she furiously screams at him. But Oikawa isn't listening, as his sharp eyes take in her flustered state. Cute, he thinks to himself. And so easy to get a reaction out of...I wonder what other reactions I can get out of her. And for the first time in a long time, volleyball isn't the only priority on his mind as a dark seed plant itself in his mind.

She sneers at the male beneath her with the most malice she could muster. Her eyes trail down to where the captain lays on the floor, cradling his nose from the mild pain. Tanaka was about to go off, yelling at him for being a disgusting pervert, but for once held her tongue back and settled for getting straight to the point.

"Listen here you nasty boy toy!" she yells out, pointing her index finger accusingly at Oikawa. "If I hear about you trying to go after one of my friends again we're gonna have a little situation, ya hear?!" She punches her fist into her open hand to emphasize her intentions. Everyone knew Oikawa was smooth with the girls, always finding ways to lead one into his bed. They always ended up swooning over him and following him around the school. Even Tanaka wasn't that dense and she'd care less if it wasn't for the fact that she saw the ass trying to hit on one of her classmates earlier. Just the thought of one of them sleeping with Oikawa just to end up being brainwashed was enough to make her skin crawl.

"Ooo is Tanaka-chan jealous?" was the response she received and she gapes at him bug-eyed at the question, a vein visibly popping up on her forehead. Nothing was stopping her from beating this clown up. Her fist tightens a bit at the thought, Oikawa could certainly use the lesson.

Just as she’s about to square up her shoulders and go through with her thoughts, the captain gets to his feet and at his full height, he towers over her, his broad frame casting a slight shadow over her smaller figure. Tanaka prides herself on her height and athletic build, but she feels minuscule compared to Oikawa. He starts to try to smooth talk Tanaka who was less than impressed.

"Listen, I didn’t make any of those girls do anything they didn’t want to. I’m pretty sure they very much enjoyed the quality time we spent together if you know what I mean.” Oikawa has the nerve to shoot a wink her way with those words and she opens her mouth to retort when a gentle touch on her lips has her freezing. Oikawa’s pointer finger is pressed against her lips and now he’s leaning down so that his mouth brushes against her earlobe. “Why don’t you give me a chance? Go on one date with me. I promise you’ll see that I’m not all that bad. Don’t you think it’s unfair to judge me without any firsthand experience?”

Her face blooms into a shade of red that would give Nekoma's team uniform a run for their money. Just feeling his breath against her ear was enough for her to take a step back. Tanaka stares at him, sharp eyes scrutinizing him until they widen at what he just said. Oikawa watches as a flurry of emotions run through the second year’s face and he can’t help but smirk when he notices her avoiding eye contact. "And what makes ya' think I'll say yes?" Oikawa observes how her shoulders are hunched up and it's simple to say that Tanaka was like an animal. You needed to approach her calmly to show her you mean no harm. And to show who the boss was around here.

He bends his neck down a bit till he's eye to eye with her and he smirks at the red flush gracing her cheeks, confusion swimming in her sharp gaze. "You're always talking about equality, equal rights, fairness...Don't you think judging me without any evidence is against all that?" Tanaka instinctively latches onto Oikawa's shoulders in an attempt to keep some space between the two of them, but his words made her think which causes what was supposed to be a harsher push to be merely a gentle hold on him. Oikawa didn't complain and opted for basking in the feel of her hands through his uniform. "Fine, you're right." She raises a brow and humors him. "It is unfair of me to accuse you without any real experience, even if I still think you're a shitty person. One date and don't try any funny business or I'll beat your ass."

A wide smile finds its way onto Oikawa’s milky porcelain skin. He places his own hands-on Tanaka, who quickly pulls away. He doesn't mind...in all due time. Tanaka watches a bit appalled as Oikawa bends down to reach for his fallen backpack. Accidentally her eyes trail along the outline of his shoulder blade poking through his uniform. The uniform fitted him rather well...She shakes her head at the thought and tries to clear her mind. She was only doing this because she had to.

"Tanaka-chan!" Said person's annoying voice disrupts her thought. Oikawa wiggles his smartphone in front of her face. "Lend me your number! I have just the perfect place we can go to." The way he’s smiling and bubbling up about a potential date that could run amok makes her stutter a bit before she reaches for her phone, albeit with slightly sweaty hands.

Grabbing a hold of her device, she offers it thinking Oikawa would just grab it from her, but a firm grasp wraps around her entire hand and he is sidling up right next to her, a burning heat on her side as his other hand wraps around her shoulders to input his number. Tanaka freezes at essentially being embraced by Oikawa and she's too aware of the weight of his arm around her and the slight smell of sweat she inhales as Oikawa's chin rests on her head and presses the back of her head against his throat. She could feel his Adam's apple poking through her scalp. As soon as he typed the last digit of his phone number, she grabs his phone and practically leaps a safe distance away from the overly touchy boy before she hastily types her number in his phone, chucking the device at him from her safe spot. "I-I'm free this weekend. Text me what you want to do." And with that she is scrambling away, her chest filled with mixed emotions. Too bad she misses the practically feral predatory look fixed on her as she makes her escape.

The expression on his face darkens as he watches Tanaka's departing silhouette. "Tanaka-chan~♡" he hums in a sing-song tone. Just the thought about how the date will go makes him hug himself, shivering slightly. "Ah...I can't help myself." Tanaka was just too cute for him. To think that there was a girl resistant to his charm only made him more tempted to lure her into his trap. Yes, he thinks to himself. It'll be fun breaking down Tanaka's facade. As Tanaka left the gym with her mind muddled with thoughts on how to deal with Oikawa she kept thinking back to how his body felt overly warm against her own, how he didn't hesitate to wrap himself around her. Slowing her steps down, she touches her lip in the same place he did and she suddenly shouts out loud, scaring someone passing by. Two could play at the game. "I'll make sure to knock his ass off at how amazing this stupid date will go!"

Texts were exchanged and the weekend quickly arrived. Oikawa patiently waits in front of the dessert shop they'd agreed to meet at and plays on his phone until he feels a presence stop in front of him. Looking up he freezes at the sight before him. Tanaka's wearing a white tank top that isn't form-fitting, but it's snug enough that Oikawa gets a good look at the figure she usually covers under the school blazer. His eyes continue trailing down to the short denim shorts she's wearing and he subconsciously licks his lips at the sight of tanned, muscular legs completely on view. "Oi, eyes up here, asshole!" Tanaka is furiously blushing as she shoves Oikawa into the shop. "I thought you were supposed to be proving me wrong about you. Ya sure ain't doing a good job of it. Don't leer at girls, ya perv!" Oikawa chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders. "I can't help it, Tanaka-chan. You're just so beautiful and I never see you in anything other than our school uniform." Tanaka continues to rant and shove him forward, but her heart flutters at his praise.

"Y-Yeah?" she stutters slightly, running a hand through her hair and goes to look him up and down. He wore a simple short sleeve black shirt with the collar unbuttoned a bit with fitting jeans that showed off his athletic physique. His hair, like usual, was styled to curve at the side, framing his face. When he starts walking ahead of her, Tanaka rolls her eyes and replies curtly. "At least you don't look like a fashion disaster." It was a backhanded compliment but it was what she could muster at the moment.

"Was that a compliment. Tanaka-chan?" "Absolutely not!" She yells loudly and opts for smacking him upside his head. Oikawa merely laughs at her reaction before guiding her to the booth that he'd booked. "Ladies first," Oikawa almost purrs and Tanaka mumbles a “whatever” before plopping down on the cushion seat, sliding down to the end. She bristled a bit when Oikawa slid in right beside her, their arms touching. Oikawa held up two menus in his hand with a small smile. "Who said you could sit next to me? Ya trying to get handsy under the table?"

Oikawa gasps dramatically. "How could you think so poorly of me, Tanaka-chan? I figured this was the easiest way to share our dessert. The portions here are too big for each of us to get our own, so I figured we could just sit next to each other and share one." Oikawa had a point...Tanaka's been here before and their ice cream floats are heavenly, but also overwhelmingly large. Plus it saved on money. "Fine! But I have my eyes on ya," she hisses at him as her hands rise in a karate chop form. Oikawa laughs and ruffles her long locks. "Have some faith in me." Tanaka flinches at the touch and moves to squeeze even further into the booth, but Oikawa just takes that as a cue to sprawl out and his thigh is now pressed up against her, his arm is spread out and resting on the booth behind her back, and she feels trapped.

Two could play at that game. Never one to back down from a challenge Tanaka retaliates. A bit aggressively, she spreads her legs as well, putting one on top of his own. Her lips pulled up into a smile of mockery when Oikawa cheeks puff up, a tinge of pink dusting them. Finally, she was gaining the upper hand of the situation, and after a few minutes passed she decided to strike up a conversation to see what the himbo was into besides volleyball.

"So what do you do besides play volleyball and sexually harass girls?" Oikawa shifts his gaze from the warm leg curled around his inner thigh.

"You might find it a bit silly, but Iwa-chan and I go out looking for UFOs and aliens a lot. Well, I'm looking for aliens and he's looking for Godzilla." There's a pause before Tanaka is letting out an ugly brash laugh. Embarrassed and irritated, Oikawa fully turns to her, his free hand gripping her bare thigh harshly as he leans forward until they're nose to nose. "It's not funny," he seethes at her. All amusement has flushed out of Tanaka and she lets out a whimper. Oikawa's grip is so tight and she's never been touched so high up her thigh before...so close to an area she doesn't want to think about.

Her thigh bucks a little in his tight hold and she freezes up, unable to think up an excuse for this predicament. "You're too close" she half whispers, pushing her back up against the wall. It did little to space herself from Oikawa who was leering over her with his eyes. "Oh? Is Tanaka-chan a bit nervous?" He squeezes his hand on her thigh, fingernails scraping against the fabric of her shorts and he moves closer till their noses touch. He could hear Tanaka breathing heavily and his eyes trail down to the pink lip gloss she decided to wear. Oikawa licks his hungrily before completing pulling off of her, the tension immediately leaving his face. "Kidding!"

Tanaka awkwardly laughs. Trying to get the ambiance back to where it was, she asks about the aliens and they proceed to exchange stories about aliens, her older sister, and her abysmal test grades. Just as they agree that it might be a good idea for Oikawa to tutor her in some of the subjects she's struggling with, their ice cream float arrives. Oikawa digs in first, scooping a generous spoonful of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream on his spoon, but instead of eating it himself, he lifts it to Tanaka's mouth. "Open wide, Tanaka-chan!" Tanaka fights the instinctive urge to push his hand away from her and obediently opens her mouth as wide as it can go, eating the offered food. She is on a date and she did promise to show Oikawa that she could be as good on a date as any other girl.

Arousal stirs in Oikawa as he stares at her licking around her mouth, trying to clean up the spots of whipped cream that accidentally smudged her face and before he can even comprehend what he's doing, his thumb is wiping off the mess on her face and bringing the dirtied digit to his mouth. He sucks on it while staring into Tanaka's eyes. There's an unfamiliar coil in Tanaka's stomach as she watches Oikawa and she feels pinned to the spot by his gaze. Finger sufficiently licked clean, Oikawa smirks at Tanaka. "Tanaka-chan, you're so messy!" Tanaka splutters as she grabs her spoon and shoves it into the float. "You don't need to feed me. I can eat on my own!"

Oikawa watches the flustered girl shove the spoon into her mouth, eyes are drawn to the little bump in her throat as she swallows the sweet treat. He couldn't help but laugh at her determination to prove herself to him, she was just far too adorable in her own right. Just as he was about to take a scoop of his own, Tanaka pokes his cheek for his attention. "Oi! Open your mouth." She wiggled the spoon full of ice cream in the air, waiting for him to eat it. When Oikawa gives her the same piercing look from earlier she returns it with a toothy grin, watching as he opens his mouth to lick the ice cream off the spoon. Tanaka watched as Oikawa's pink lips pulled off the spoon, his Adam's apple shuffling a bit as he swallowed.

"Ah!" He presses his hand to his cheek dramatically and Tanaka snorts at his antics. "Tanaka-chan feeding me this makes it sweeter!" Bemusement fills Oikawa's body as Tanaka shoves him a bit, laughing a bit too loudly at his corny joke. The girl couldn't help but feel her chest warm-up at the genuine laugh Oikawa gave her. It was nothing like during their matches. Shaking her head, she was unaware of the smile she wore. "Shut up and finish the food you himbo." And much to the second year's surprise, the date went well.

They go on a few more dates, which also all go smoothly, but soon enough finals are around the corner, and Tanaka desperately needed to buckle down and study. Her coach had told her she might not be able to play volleyball anymore if she didn't pass the upcoming exams. The thought of not being able to do what she loved most had her frantically searching for any solution and she soon finds herself alone in her room with Oikawa as they hover over the multitude of textbooks and notes scattered all over her bedroom floor.

Oikawa and Tanaka are seated right next to each other as Tanaka intensely studies the papers in front of her and Oikawa leans over her, hovering right above her. But his attention is hardly on the text lying in front of them. Instead, he's focused on how small Tanaka seems underneath his hovering figure, the emptiness of her house (her parents and sister are conveniently away for the week on some business trip or other obligations), and how naive and trusting she is of the predator she's let into her room.

It was slightly embarrassing when she had asked Oikawa to help her study, he gave her shit for asking and she had to smack him upside the head again before he childishly accepted her request. Now she sat on the floor of her room in a loose white tank top and some basketball shorts, unaware of how Oikawa's eyes leered at the dip between her chest. The sound of the pencil scribbling in her notebook was the only noise in the silent room. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she fills in the blank equation.

"That's wrong Ryu-chan~" he plucks her pencil from her hands before erasing the equation and explaining where she went wrong with the calculation. The male felt his chest stutter when she punched her hand in realization. "Got it, thanks!" She plucks the pencil from his fingers, the male silently enjoying when their fingers meet. As she tries the formula again she pushes her hair back. "Oi. Can you get scrunchie from the drawer over there? Hair is driving me nuts," she asked, her eyes never drifting away from the notebook. It seems like she started trusting Oikawa a bit more after seeing how kind he was when they were alone.

Oikawa retrieves the scrunchie and settles behind Tanaka. "Let me tie your hair for you, Tanaka-chan. Focus on studying." Tanaka's focus is still on the notes in front of her and she just vaguely nods in agreement. Oikawa tangles his hand in her dyed locks, pulling and brushing the strands together. He uses more force than necessary as he grabs her hair from the roots, pulling Tanaka's head back with his motion and he feels his cock twitch at the guttural moan she releases at the harsh action. "Sorry, sorry! I'm not used to this," he quickly chirps out as he continues tying Tanaka's long locks into a ponytail. She just grunts in acknowledgment as she continues to study. Oikawa smirks at his work and he clenches his jaw at the thought of how easily he could control her movement with just a harsh tug on the long ponytail swaying back and forth with every nod and shake of Tanaka's head.

Silence falls over the two of them and unconsciously Tanaka begins to lean into Oikawa touch, his fingers grazing her scalp soothingly. She didn't realize that she was practically sitting in his lap. Watching silently, he coils her dyed locks around his fingers, pressing himself against her to smell the conditioner she used earlier. The older of the two couldn't help but wonder if Tanaka knew what she was doing to him or if she was that dumb to let him get so close. But it didn't matter.

"Mm...how's this?" When she twists her body to look up at her tutor, Oikawa could see right down her shirt, see how her chest is pushed together by the bra she wears, her face pretty close to him. Her eyes trail down to where he was staring and she started to raise her voice out of annoyance. "H-Hey." Upon realization of how close they were, she started to pull herself away until the grip on her hair tightened. "Oikawa let go of my-" she grunts when he tugs her down into his lap, her eyes widening when she feels something long and warm pressing against her backside.

Oikawa hisses at the feeling of Tanaka unconsciously rubbing against his dick. He shifts her in his arms until she's fully grinding against the throbbing erection straining against his pants. His hands have snuck beneath the loose white tank top she's wearing and they are rolling, flicking, twisting, and pulling the sensitive nubs. Tanaka can't help but throw her head back against Oikawa's shoulder as she lewdly moans at the sensations she's feeling for the first time in her life. "St-stop, p- please- NGH-" She's never been with a man before and the foreign feeling she's experiencing in her core and sensitive nubs has her at Oikawa's mercy. Tears begin to brim in her eyes, but she can't deny the pleasure she feels as she bounces on the hardening shape of Oikawa's groin.

Oikawa purrs at how Tanaka's hips move against his erection. It’s amazing how warm she is against him, if he didn't know any better it felt as if they were already naked. "Oh..." he almost sounds sad when Tanaka starts to beg him to stop his ministrations. He lowers his head a bit to run his pink tongue against the edge of her ear, noting how she freezes up. She is so sensitive, thinks Oikawa.

"But Ryu-chan you're sending mixed signals. Are you sure you want me to stop?" He rolls his thumb around her hardened nipples, pinching as hard as he could. The groan Tanaka gives him almost makes him lose himself but he keeps it together. He waited far too long for this. "Just look at you Ryu-," he pauses to place a hand on the back of her shirt, pushing her back out till she arches. "Even when I do push you away you're still grinding against me. Do you know what that means? Hmm?"

Tanaka is unable to respond coherently with her mouth wide open, drool trickling out the side as her hips continue desperately shaking for more contact. "It means you want this...you love this, you pretty little slut. My pretty little slut. No one's ever made you feel like this before. Who's the only one who can make you feel like this?" Tanaka doesn't answer, too overwhelmed by the new feelings of lust and arousal rising inside her. Oikawa roughly pulls her head back with a harsh tug on her swinging ponytail. "Answer me," he snarls. "Y-you! Only you can make me feel like this," Tanaka practically wails. Oikawa smiles and with the hand not twisted in Tanaka's hair, he begins to push down her basketball shorts and panties along with his pants and boxers, his cock springing out. He slips himself between Tanaka, allowing her dripping pussy to soak his hard length with her juices.

Each touch and grasp from Oikawa feels like electricity running through her body. Never had she felt like this. The confusion was the first thing that came to her when she answered Oikawa. Did she truly want this? She lets out another wanton moan when he pressed his index finger just above her clit. Although her mind was beginning to muddle from hypersensitivity, she manages to place a hand on Oikawa's cock, squeezing to the point that it becomes painful. She smirks a bit when she hears him grunt in pain. "G-Get off!" She hisses lowly. She should've never trusted the bastard. The grip on her hair tightens and she holds back a groan, eager to get some footing and probably beat the shit out of him.

Oikawa is enraged at Tanaka's retaliation. "You fucking bitch!" He wraps both his hands around her throat, choking her with an increasingly tightening grip until Tanaka's hands release their hold on him and claw at the vice around her neck. Oikawa throws her down to the ground, one hand still firmly gripping her throat while the other hand works to completely remove all their clothing waist down. Tanaka continues her attack on Oikawa's hand, lashing out and leaving behind trails of scratch marks as she fights to breathe. Her legs attempt to kick him off of her, but Oikawa digs his knees into her sensitive inner thighs, effectively pinning her down painfully.

She screams out in rage, coughing due to her currently limited air supply. Oikawa hovering over her with such tenacity in his eyes is enough to make her keep jerking around in his hold. With a free hand, she claws at his cheek, eyes narrowed into slits. "T-The only bitch here is you!" She manages to growl out, her lips pursing together before she spits in his left eye. The sudden attack makes Oikawa loosen his grip around her neck and Tanaka's hand desperately scrambles against the floor for anything to use as leverage. She pauses when her fingertips come in contact with the math textbook from earlier and quickly she grips it, slamming it across Oikawa's head. The sound of the book colliding with Oikawa's head, him yelling out her name- the way he now lays on the floor with a venomous glare directed at her makes her stomach churn with disgust and something else she didn't want to admit. With no time to waste she scoots herself away from the teen, her bedroom door just inches away. "F-Fuck!" she cussed out.

She doesn't care that she's currently half-naked. She doesn't care that she probably looks like a mess. All she cares about is escaping. All she cares about is making it out of the house where she can scream for help. She lunges for her bedroom door and her fingers graze the knob when a strong force slams her into the ground. Dazed from the impact, but still fueled by instincts, she blindly flails around in an attempt to dislodge the heavier figure on top of her. Oikawa grabs her by the base of her ponytail and slams her face into the ground and Tanaka moans in pain, but he doesn't let up his actions and continues to repeatedly slam her face into the hard ground until her nose is a bleeding mess and she is sobbing, all fight gone from her as she tries to curl in on herself and begs him to stop. She just wants the pain to stop. She just wants everything to stop.

He breathes heavily as he pushes her head once more into the cold, desolate floor for the proper measure. Just this action alone was enough for Tanaka to realize that something terrible would happen to her. And it's all her fault. As she curled up, cries dripping incredulously off her now bruised lips she feels a large warm hand encompass her face. Her body is aching, her head mostly, but Oikawa twists her upper part till she is looking him directly in the eye. The scratch from earlier is now welting on his cheek, the same for the ones littered on his arms. Oikawa stares down at her with eyes once filled with warmth, now voided with lust and anger.

"Ryu-chan...I can call you that right? It doesn't matter. Look what you made me do to your pretty face." His voice no longer held a playful tone, instead replaced with a flat and stoic tone. He trails a milky white finger down her bruising cheek, her eyes following him, before moving it to where blood dripped from her. He visibly shudders as he admires how her blood looked on his fingers. Absolutely dazzling. "Ryu-chan. Ryu-chan. Hey, look at me." When her eyes, now wet with tears, connect with his, he smiles. "Do you think you can behave for me?"

Tanaka rapidly nods her head and Oikawa leans down to gently kiss her on the lips despite the blood still flowing down her face into their connected mouths. "Good girl, Ryu-chan. I can make you feel so good. You don't want to feel pain anymore, right?" He continues cooing gentle words into her ear as he guides her body until she's laying on her back underneath him. Tears still stream from Tanaka's eyes as she lets Oikawa position her as he pleases. Anything to keep him from hurting her anymore. Oikawa continues to softly kiss her as his fingers begin trailing all over her body leaving tingling sensations in their wake. And oh...this does feel nice and Tanaka closes her eyes as she enjoys the soothing sensations. Unseen by her, Oikawa smirks as he feels the tension exit her body and he almost moans in excitement when she hesitantly reciprocates the kiss. "That's right, Ryu-chan. Look at how good I can make you feel when you behave. I don't like hurting you, so just listen to me ok."

She looks up at him slightly dazed and frowns a bit at his words before carefully nodding. Her head was still hurting from the abuse inflicted by Oikawa and it was evident that if nothing went his way she would feel the physical aftermath of it. She watches as Oikawa runs his hands against her waist, thumbs jutting out to rub circles just under her stomach. A soft moan makes Oikawa continue his ministrations, fingers gliding across her body with skill. He is the grandmaster and she is the piano to be tuned to his liking. When he lifts her thighs apart, minding the blue welts he is happy to see that her pussy is indeed glistening with arousal. "Oh...just look at you." He shakes his head in disbelief. He looks at her with pity which makes her slightly annoyed and tempted to say something back. He coos. "You're a virgin. Aren't you?"

Tanaka flushes. "Y-yeah. So what?!" Oikawa smiles and lightly kisses a trail down her inner thigh until his face is directly in front of the dripping hole and teasingly blows. "H-HEY! Stop that! That's nasty. Get your face away from there." Tanaka reaches down to shove Oikawa away, but a bruising grip on her wrist makes her wince. "What did I just say about behaving?" Oikawa's voice is all venom and it makes Tanaka's bruises and wounds throb. She chokes back a sob as she lays back down, fingers clenched so tightly in a fist that the nails dig into her skin. Oikawa presses one last kiss to her inner thigh in approval at her obedience before ravenously devouring her soaked cunt.

She wasn't ready for how the flat of his tongue would feel against her folds, the nubs of his tastebuds creating amazing friction and she nearly keens. A broken high pitch moan is pushed out of her as she feels Oikawa's tongue getting busy. It was amazing how the warmth of his tongue was enough to make any tension in her body just disappear. Tanaka found herself torn between wanting to push Oikawa off or letting him continue. She raises a hand to do the former but drops it when the volleyball player sucks on her clitoris, her thighs squeezing his head on both sides. "F-Fuck...stop it, man..." She is so lost and confused in the sea of lust and pain. Oikawa merely watches Tanaka's expression, enjoying how she struggles to fight off the inevitable. She starts to squirm when he begins talking against her folds. "You taste good Ryu-chan~ This must be fate. It has to be."

"Ah...fuck off ya little shit…," she all but groans out, her free hand covering her now flushed and humiliated face.

Something is growing in the pit of her stomach and Tanka pales. Shit, she's about to cum. No, no, no she doesn't want to cum...not in front of Oikawa and not because of Oikawa. "Oi, st-stop it...It's too much..." She moves to push him away again, but Oikawa just grabs both her wrists in his hands as he continues his ministrations. He can feel her body tensing more and more and he can feel her pussy twitching...just a little more...he sucks harshly on her clit and that's all it takes for Tanaka 's spine to arch, her mouth to fling wide open in a silent scream, and her eyes to roll back as she orgasms.

But Oikawa doesn't relent and he continues to lick and suck, making lewd slurping noises as Tanaka writhes and screams in overstimulation. "Th-AH-that's enough. Pl-please -OH- no more! Please, please, please...." Tanaka's words start making less and less sense as Oikawa continues his assault. Only when Tanaka is in tears does Oikawa give one last suck to her throbbing clit and move away as he positions himself so that his cock aligns with her soaked hole.

Her legs are slack from her first orgasm and more so from the overstimulation. All her senses are on high alert as she gasps for air. Although she was already crying beforehand it was nothing compared to how she is sobbing now. Tears stream down her now extremely red face as she weakly tries to push Oikawa away from her leg. His erection looks far too intimidating and the worst part is that it’s going to go into her. "O-Oikawa...wait!" She weakly pushes herself against the back of the door to sit upright before giving him a small smile. "Can you...can you..." she looks away before gently caressing his hand. Tanaka exhales “It's my first time." She prayed this would work. "I have some condoms and lube in my top drawer." Oikawa studies her face carefully with an unreadable expression and watches as she struggles to crawl close to him. The stutter in her words is evident, but she refuses to go down without a fight. This is her last chance. "Can ya get them for me? If we're gonna do this, we'll do it right." The drawer is only a few feet away from Oikawa.

Oikawa smiles and gently brings her in for another kiss. "Of course, Ryu-chan. I'll make sure your first time is perfect." He gets up and the instant his back is to her, she once again lunges for the bedroom door and this time successfully escapes. Oikawa's angry screams have her trembling legs moving even faster as she rushes to the outside door. She's so close, but fear ignites within her as she hears his heavier footsteps drawing closer and closer to her. Her hand is just about to unlock the front door when strong arms wrap themselves around her waist and spin her around. Any gentleness Oikawa had shown earlier is gone and all that remained was the fury in his eyes.

He brings his hand up and strikes her across the face so hard that she finds herself on the floor cradling her bruised cheek, but Oikawa's not done with his punishment. He cruelly kicks her in the gut and she gasps as she curls in on herself clutching the abused part. She's still coming to grips with all the pain when she feels a weight on her head. Oikawa is pressing her face into the ground with his foot and Tanaka sobs in humiliation. "You're being such a bad girl, Ryu-chan. Brats don't deserve nice things. You lost any chance of this being pleasant for you. But if you learn to behave, maybe next time will be better for you." Tanaka freezes at his words. "Next time? There's not going to be a next time, you sick fuck!" Oikawa presses his foot even harder into her face which silences her. "You still don't get it, Ryu-chan? Of course, there's going to be a next time. And there'll be the next time after that and on and on. This isn't just a one-time thing. This is your life now."

No. No. He couldn't be serious right? This had to be all a dream. It had to. She wanted it to be a dream so badly, but the foot is pressed into her face is indeed the reality of her situation. She grits her teeth in pain when he applies more pressure to her now bruised face and curls up more, cradling her aching stomach. She feels so powerless in this position, nothing she does will stop Oikawa and now it is dawning on her that his words were final. Oikawa pauses when he feels the edge of Tanaka's lips move.

"Speak up, Ryu-chan." She whispers just audibly enough for him to hear. "You're gonna rape me...you lied." Her eyes trail up to the now disheveled Oikawa. Just like her he only had a top on, but disgustingly enough his erection is awake. He is getting off to this, she figured. "You're a liar. I thought you would prove me wrong." She exhales deeply before pushing his foot off her face. The ponytail he made came undone and Tanaka’s hair fell into her face, casting a looming shadow. Oikawa's eyes widen at the sudden display of intimidation. Even after being beaten up Tanaka still had the strength to talk back, to even glare at him. He watches stiffly as Tanaka weakly claws at his leg, nails sinking deep into his calves that would later leave red crescent marks. She is so beautiful.

"Ryunosuke..." He breathes her name and he bends down to make eye contact with her, eyes staring deep into ones that reflect hatred. "This is why I like you." He places a hand in her hair, patting it gently before his grip tightens. "And now I'm going to show you. Whether you like it or not." He needs this, he waited far too long. Oikawa stands, enjoying the screams of pain and how Tanaka's body sounds being dragged on the wooden floor. There is a pink blush on his face, he was ecstatic.

He drags her back to her bedroom where he tosses her onto the bed and pins her down with his legs as he strips his shirt off. Now completely naked he reaches down to also remove Tanaka's tank top, but Tanaka uses her still free arms to stop him. Irritated, Oikawa backhands her across the face so hard her nose begins to bleed again and Tanaka lets him remove her top without any more fuss. "Ryu-chan, I really do hate hurting you." Oikawa is tenderly stroking her face, but there's only hunger in his gaze. He does hate hurting her, but he loves the way she looks painted red...Oikawa once again lines himself up with Tanaka's now dry pussy, but he could care less as he shoves his entire length into her, relishing in how tight she feels around him. "Fuck, Ryu-chan. You're so tight, so perfect. It's like you were made for me." He continues his sickening train of praise, but Tanaka isn't paying attention as she screams in pain from the forced intrusion. "Oikawa, stop! You're too big. Take it out. Please take it out!" But Oikawa is only spurred on by the desperate tone in her voice and he begins roughly thrusting into her at a rapid pace, his hands gripping her waist so tight she's sure to have finger-shaped bruises there afterward.

As soon as he thrusts into her for the first time there is no joy. There isn’t anyone whispering in her ear lovingly like the stories her friends told her, there isn't any pause for her to adjust. Nothing feels good. He is too big for her tight snatch and the forceful intrusion leaves her feeling raw and disgusting. Her screams won’t reach anyone and she cries out Oikawa's name when the friction from his thrust hits her hymen. She didn't think she had any more tears, but they start to stream down her face, mixing with the blood as Oikawa takes her virginity. "I hate you...hate you so much." But Oikawa doesn’t hear, his mind is elsewhere in a frenzy, enjoying the tightness of her pussy, how she starts to bleed on his cock. She hates his pathetic face, it’s all she can look at. Her stomach starts to coil in familiarity and she releases a choked moan when he lowers his lips to her perky tits.

Oikawa continues his relentless pace as he takes a hardening nipple into his mouth and rolls the other in between his dexterous fingers. Tanaka hates herself for the way she starts to moan and how her pussy begins to coat itself with lubrication, but Oikawa's been around and he knows exactly what he's doing. She doesn't stand a chance as he continues sucking and twisting her sensitive nubs and fuck her eyes widen when Oikawa's cock drag across something inside of her. Oikawa smirks and aims for that same spongy spot over and over again. "Wha-what are you doing? St-stop that. Ah! Pl-please stop it." It's an unfamiliar pleasure for Tanaka and she wants to die from humiliation. How could she be feeling so good while she's being raped? How could she be feeling so good while Oikawa is using her as nothing but a sex toy to get off in? But the pleasure is so new to her that she can't help it as her cunt begins to tighten and she's reaching a peak higher than anything she's felt before.

"That's it, Ryu-chan. I want you to fall apart because of me. Come on. Cum for me." Oikawa uses his free hand to furiously rub her neglected clit and it's the combination of every one of her sensitive spots being stimulated at the same time that brings Tanaka to an overwhelmingly strong climax. Oikawa releases an animalistic growl as he plunges even faster and harder into her tight quivering walls. "Fuck, your pussy is squeezing so hard on me. It's like it doesn't want to ever let me go." All it takes is a few more thrusts and Oikawa is releasing his seed deep inside of her while he forces her to look him in the eyes.

Her mouth falls open in a silent scream, drool falling as she arches, squirting all over Oikawa’s cock. Everything leaves her feeling tingly inside and the feeling of being overstimulated starts to become unbearable as Oikawa chases for his release. Her eyes threaten to close but Oikawa's hand on her face makes her stay awake. It is strange how she finds his face so handsome, even as he is raping her. He is concentrating on her and only her. Did it mean someone likes her...right? The thought disappears as she grunts when she feels the hot sliminess of his seed filling her womb and silently thanks her sister for tossing a bottle of pills her way a few weeks beforehand. A silence falls on the two of them and Tanaka stares up at Oikawa with an unreadable expression. It was over right? He would finally leave her alone and never show his face. That's what she wanted to believe, but in the back of her head, all she wants is to kiss him. Her eyes trail to his now bruised lips and they linger there until Oikawa moves closer.

"Ryu-chan." She looks away from him.

Oikawa gently but firmly turns Tanaka's face towards him. She wants to hate him, she does, but she swears she sees a glimmer of affection in his chocolate-brown gaze, and that sets her heart aflutter. He’s so handsome and he made her feel so good...Her thoughts trail off when she feels his lips gently kissing her and she sinks into it. All she knows and feels is love for the brunette who’s caressing her. Oikawa smiles as he feels Tanaka wrap her arms around the back of his neck as she returns the kiss. “Ryu-chan, you’ll be mine, right?” Something deep inside of Tanaka makes her pause at his words and she hesitates, but then Oikawa is kissing her gently again and looking at her with such tenderness that she finds herself saying yes...and she means it. Yes, she loves Oikawa. He’ll take care of her. He’ll make her feel good. And with that last thought, she falls completely into his embrace.

Dedicated to:

@watermelonsugawara @thisisthehardestthing

[rwby-redux]

Preface

RWBY is the breakthrough anime web series created by the late Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. Originally teased on November 5th, 2012, and officially debuted July 18th, 2013, the series follows the journeys of four young women enrolled in an academy that trains monster-slaying warriors known as Huntsmen. Set in the fictional world of Remnant, the story initially focuses on the surface-level plot of fighting against humanity’s ancient adversary, the ever-present Creatures of Grimm; over time, it becomes apparent that things aren’t what they seem, as the cast slowly begins to connect a string of heists committed by a criminal syndicate with the violent acts of a terrorist cell. The series is aired weekly on Rooster Teeth’s website, with its main arcs spanning 12 – 16 episodes per volume. In the years following the show’s initial release, RWBY has spawned numerous merchandise and related media, including two spin-off shows, multiple side-stories published as mangas, two standalone books, three mobile games, a behind-the-scenes artbook, and OSTs for every volume to date.

As of Volume 7 there are 98 episodes in total with a collective runtime of 18:52:00, or approximately 1,132 minutes, with more episodes and side content underway.

At best, they’re visually interesting; at worst, they’re disappointing.

Let me take a second to backtrack before the lynch mob starts to sharpen its pitchforks. The series deserves much of the praise that it’s gotten. RWBY was the first American-produced anime to be released in Japan (and if you’re a fan of anime, you know how insane those words sound). The 3D models and animation from Volume 4 onward are breathtakingly stunning, and even before the show made the leap from Poser to Maya, the fight sequences managed to be equally creative and entertaining. The show was nominated for and received multiple Streamy Awards, and was awarded Best Animated Series by the International Academy of Web Television. The Volume 1 soundtrack reached number one on iTunes, beating out the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Such is RWBY’s (and Rooster Teeth’s) reputation that it managed to attract the attention of, and later bring on, industry veterans and vocal legends such as Jen Taylor, Josh Grelle, and Aaron Dismuke.

That’s to say nothing of the fandom this franchise has amassed, of kids, teenagers, and young adults alike. RWBY has generated dozens of forums dedicated to fanfiction, fanart, and roleplaying. Thousands of people the world over have bonded over this show, fans from all walks of life. They’re passionate about this series. The fact that I’m writing this post is a testimony of that. If I didn’t care about RWBY, I wouldn’t be sitting on my couch at 3 AM, hunched over my laptop in my pajamas.

If RWBY is so good (or occasionally threatens to become good), you might be wondering, why, then, does this blog exist?

Well, because…when you stop and look at it critically, it actually kind of sucks.

Despite initially being written by a three-man team, the series is full of inconsistencies and an underdeveloped cast. The characters, especially from Volumes 1 — 3, are full of one-dimensional stereotypes whose contributions to the story amount to a three-word summary: “The School Bully,” “The Wacky Professors,” “The Racist Cop,” “The Cutthroat Bitch,” “The Anime Waifu,” “The Audience Surrogate,” “Discount Elle Woods,” and so on. Fundamental elements of the story, like Aura, Semblance, and Dust, are either poorly-explained or not explained at all, and the limitations of those core concepts can change at a moment’s notice to suit the needs of the plot. The primary antagonist of the first three volumes is universally hated by the fandom for having no discernible motivations beyond being “ambitious and power-hungry,” and having a personality that consists exclusively of irritating smug. The show-writers, despite repeatedly promising queer representation, have failed to make even one of their ten central protagonists queer. This isn’t touching upon the fact that the first openly-gay character on the show was an antagonist, or that the next two were side-characters who were relevant to the plot for all of seven episodes, before vanishing from the story entirely. The two leads that are currently being hyped as our first queer main-cast members have only been repeatedly teased, with said characters never once uttering the words, “I’m bi,” “I date women,” “I’m not straight”—nothing but narrative subtext and playful winks from the VAs whenever a fan asks if they’re queer. Subplots end up having no pay-off or get entirely forgotten mid-volume. The story is so protagonist-biased that the heroes are frequently able to get away with being hypocritical, or committing criminal acts because “it was the right thing to do,” with their POV framed as an infallible “fuck you, got mine” verbal gut-punch to the audience (while other characters in the show, who often make the exact same calls as the heroes, are ridiculed by the show and the fandom). Whenever the story isn’t spray-painting stolen cars and selling them to their original owners, it manages to clumsily handle allegories for real-world issues such as systemic racism, mental illness, abuse dynamics/victim survivorship, and gray morality. The worldbuilding is absent from the main show and has to be supplemented through RWBY’s spin-off series World of Remnant. The story’s setting feels flat and lifeless at times because the “cultures” of this world are never established.

The list goes on and on.

So if this show has so many flaws, why are we still having this conversation?

Because I’m captivated by the untapped potential of this world. When you brush away all of the detritus, you can see the wealth of raw material buried beneath. This is a world where the gods have forsaken their creations, with one having even deliberately created the monsters that hunt humanity. The two characters who are central to the history of this world are tragic figures, one cursed with immortality as a punishment for demanding that the gods revise the first draft, and do away with needless death; and the other, cursed to ceaselessly reincarnate into the minds and bodies of like-minded souls, waging a war of attrition against a person warped beyond recognition by the capricious spite of the gods. This is a world of forgotten magic, of shifting allegiances, of characters embarking on personal journeys and unearthing deadly secrets. It’s a story of people from all walks of life learning to cooperate and work together, forging friendships and alliances in order to face the challenges that lie ahead.

It could easily have the bones of an epic fantasy series as long as it remembers to drink its milk.

RWBY’s issues aren’t insurmountable. Most of them are the byproduct of the series’ blind adherence to “rule of cool,” the motto that practically codified the beginning of the show. From Volume 4 onward, the series took a radical shift in tone that tried to be “more mature,” and only succeeded in making the earlier episodes absurd in hindsight. Why, in Volume 6, are the characters concerned about civilian endangerment, when in Volume 2 they happily pursued a giant mech in a highway car-chase scene that would’ve caused untold collateral damage and civilian death? This change in storytelling created a thematic disparity that reoccurs time and time again, retroactively emphasizing just how inconsistent the worldbuilding and storytelling are.

It tried to be Avatar: The Last Airbender, and what we’re left with instead is Game of Thrones Season 8.

Now, I’m not using this blog as a platform to damn Monty Oum (or claim to be a better creator than him). But it’s important to address the flaws in his story, and to acknowledge that his passing doesn’t make RWBY somehow sacrosanct or immune to constructive criticism. RWBY has flaws, ranging from nitpicky to potentially capable of causing real-world harm (in the case of the aforementioned queerbaiting and racism analogies). I’m a firm believer that art doesn’t exist in a vacuum; art is informed by our beliefs just as much as art informs our beliefs. We can still respect and admire the potential RWBY has to offer, while being mindful of where it needs to improve.

That’s where this blog comes in.

At the end of the day, the RWBY Redux exists as a thought experiment. I’m writing it chiefly to entertain worldbuilding ideas and headcanons I’ve spent years musing on. I’m not asking readers to agree with any of my numerous stances, nor am I going to shy away from other fans’ criticism as I hammer this project out. With a little TLC, perhaps I’ll manage to create something that manages to be more complex than its source material. And if you choose to follow along with my endeavors, hopefully you’ll find this project equal parts engaging and entertaining.

Wish me luck.

[idratherstayslytherin]

Re-writing the story I once wrote, but not really

Some of you may remember my fic “The Feelings We Can’t Let Go”.

It began as a head canon, then the lovely person on tumblr wrote the more put together version of it. We decided to write the fic together. It was going well until university and UK fucked me over. During this whole madness my co-writer disappeared from tumblr and I can’t contact her. I have tried it many times. She didn’t reply. I started writing the fic myself determined to finish it, but my life is hell rn and I don’t have the time to write the two last chapters. I do have the outline and hopefully after i start earning money and start actually getting better mentally and studying and money wise, I’ll finish it. For now I went back to the first version of the headcanon I made  with my co-writer and noticed A LOT OF GRAMMAR mistakes as well as some things that weren’t making sense. I wanted to re write this kind of first chapter, so I did. I added a lot of new text, fixed all the mistakes that I could see and ta da! There you have it. You have to be happy with just this until I have the time to finish this damn fic. I want it to be enjoyable, but also make sense, maybe even help people with their own problems, I want it to seem real and I want it to be a lovely love story. I’m a romantic shoot me. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it! Let me know what you think of it <3 I love reading your comments. Also if any artist wants to idk make a fanart of my work now or after I finish this damn fic and have a beta read  it , then feel free to do so. Okay, I’m talking way too much, just STFU Ola, no one wants to listen to you rumble :D 

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Harry felt like he should have wanted to go back to Hogwarts. Even worse, he knew he should go back there. But he just couldn’t convince himself, not even with Hermione and Ginny returning. Then again, Ron wasn’t going back either, and he didn’t even feel guilty about it, not even after Hermione talked to him about the importance of learning and getting the best possible results in their NEWTs. He got a bit of yelling too, but Hermione directed most of it at Ron, leaving Harry to deal with an angry and sad Ginny, who wanted him to go back.

But there they were on the first of September at King’s Cross station saying their goodbyes and waving after the Hogwarts Express before apparating back to Grimmauld Place. Ron had no intentions of spending the year at the Burrow, it was too far away from London, and he wanted to help George out at Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes in Diagon Alley. He also admitted that he couldn’t really deal with his parents’ grief, and Harry was more than happy to offer him accommodation, not only because Ron was his best mate, but he really needed the company. Grimmauld Place might have looked a lot less gloomy since they renovated it, spending all June and most of July sorting and chucking out old furniture and artefacts, knocking down some of the walls (this being the only way of getting rid of the horrible yelling portrait of Sirius’ mother), and painting the rest in brighter shades, the house was still way too big for one person.

Soon, having turned Hogwarts down, Harry found himself obliged to decide on what he wanted to do with his life or at least the foreseeable future. Of course everyone expected him to become an auror, it seemed like the most obvious choice, but despite admittedly being interested in the job back in their fifth year, he wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to go along with it. He might have defeated Voldemort, but was that really what he was destined to do all his life? Hunt down dark wizards?

He decided on meeting with Kingsley to discuss further possibilities. After getting detailed information about all of jobs he recommended to Harry, and spending three days straight going through the descriptions, forms and books he got, he was sure he would either want to become an Unspeakable or a Curse-breaker. He would have been happy to dive back into his books and papers to choose one of the two jobs. However Ron was already complaining about the whole house being littered with the papers; how Harry did nothing except sit on the couch, read and compare and read and compare; so Harry decided to give himself some time to consider his choice, meanwhile enjoying his freedom.

Do you seriously want to be an Unspeakable?" Ron asked, his mouth full. This was the only part of the last few days he was enjoying, the takeaway they had every evening. "You can never shut up about what you are doing. Do you really think you could go without telling anyone anything about your job?"

"Probably not." Harry shrugged, picking up another slice of pizza. "Though I guess I’ll have to, and it will be worth it.

"C’mon, Curse-breaking seems much more interesting. I’d go with that without hesitation."

"Well then why don’t you? And let me become who I want to be?" Harry snapped. He ate the last bit of pizza, and wiped his hands. " Sorry I didn’t mean that, I’m tired. " He apologised as soon as he realised Ron said nothing that should have angered him. He rubbed his eyes.

"Hardly surprising, you barley slept these past few days, mate, seriously. Just forget about this job thing for a while, it isn’t going to do you any good. Besides, it’s not like you have to start work instantly, you have enough money to live happily for the rest of your life."

"I did sleep last night." Harry protested, deciding not to comment on the money part, as what Ron said was true, he did have a vault full of money. His friend didn’t, and even though he offered to help them, they never accepted it. What he also didn’t mention was that even though he did get a bit of sleep, he kept waking up from nightmares, and if it hadn’t been for the coffee he had every two hours, he would have nodded off halfway through the day.  The nightmares, and pretty much everything else connected to the war were one of those topics they avoided. It sometimes resulted in uncomfortable silences, Harry agreed that it was better this way.

"I wonder who else from our year is going back to school." Ron said, changing the topic. "I know Neville decided to do the auror training. And Seamus isn’t going back either, he said something about opening some pub in Diagon."

"I think I heard Dean was going back."

"Oh yeah I heard that too. And Padma and Parvati. I don’t know about anyone else though."

"Me neither. I only know that most of the Slytherins aren’t returning, a lot of them got house arrests with their parents and stuff like that."

"Malfoy?"

"House arrest, in France. But I think he will be taking NEWTs."

"He deserves to rot in Azkaban with his father" Ron scowled.

"He isn’t that bad. I mean he did save my life once" Harry said, though he didn’t sound too sure about it. He might not have despised him as much as he did before, but it was still Malfoy.

"Yeah, and then you saved his, so don’t get any funny ideas of owing him or anything" Ron told him, making Harry grin, Ron knew him more than anyone else. He did feel like he owed Malfoy, a bit at least, but he guessed that speaking in his favour at the trials made them equal.

"Alright" Harry laughed. He vanished the empty pizza boxes, and stood up, yawning. "I’m tired, let’s pack it in for the day."

"I second that" Ron stood up as well, and the two friends made their way upstairs to their bedrooms, Ron in one of the guest ones, Harry sleeping in Sirius’s old room.

Days passed, Harry visited Kingsley once again, then spent another day reading before eventually deciding on Curse-breaking, which seemed ideal for him except for one small thing: he needed an Exceeds Expectations in Potions. Which was impossible to say the least with his skill and knowledge. So he went to the Ministry again, and consulted with several people before agreeing to let them find him a tutor.

He ended up spending a week doing whatever he wanted, before he got any news on the matter. He visited Ron and George; he went to Muggle London; he started repainting Sirius’s old motorbike that Arthur fixed for him, leaving the finishing touches for Harry. He also sat around at home, waiting for Ginny’s face to appear in the fireplace, so she could tell him about school, and he could tell her how much he missed her. He also thought about who will be chosen as his tutor. Was it going to be some weird old Potions master like Slughorn or someone distant and cold, but really talented and intelligent like Snape, or maybe just someone of his age, who was better at the subject than him? The Ministry owl arrived on Friday, with the name and address of his tutor. But something was wrong, the address was somewhere in France. And the name was Draco Lucius Malfoy.

"Are you kidding me? Malfoy?"  Ron asked horrified, when he read through the letter Harry shoved into his face as soon as he got home that evening. "Don’t tell me there isn’t anyone else in the whole wizarding world who could help you in Potions. Why did they have to choose that git?"

"I have no idea" Harry sighed. "But it’s not just that. Why France? Why can’t it be someone here in London? I don’t speak French, I don’t know anyone there, it just doesn’t make any sense."

"Can’t you ask the Ministry to find you someone else?"

"Already tried. But apparently Malfoy is the best solution, as we know each other, and we would both benefit from it."

"Both benefit from it?! How would you both benefit from it? What would Malfoy benefit from it? You are lucky to actually learn something if you don’t get killed, but how can he benefit from it?"

"Search me" Harry rolled his eyes.

"When are you leaving?"

"I have a Portkey for next Wednesday."

"Wednesday? But that’s less than a week!"

"I know, but I guess I’ll just have to do it, no matter what."

"This sucks, mate."

"I know. If I don’t get an O after this, I swear I’ll be using some Unforgivables on some people."

The next few days passed quickly, way too quickly in Harry’s opinion, and soon he found himself at the Ministry, looking at the corkscrew on the table, his belongings in his pocket, all shrunken.

"Here goes nothing" he muttered, before taking hold of the charmed corkscrew, and letting it transport him in only a few seconds to his destination: a little French town.

From what he saw on his walk to the Malfoys’ place (Kingsley thought it would be safer for him to arrive outside the town for whatever reason), he thought it could have been England, the small cottages were no different from those they had back there. The one Malfoy and Narcissa were living in was just like the others, a simple Muggle house. The Ministry told him that he would be staying there in a spare bedroom made for him with the help of the expansion charm, until he mastered the needed level of potionmaking, practising in Malfoy's lab. Apart from this, all he knew was that Narcissa had a Muggle job helping out at a clothes shop in the town, and Draco also worked a bit from home, neither of them allowed to leave the boundaries the Ministry had set, and neither of them possessing a wand.

Narcissa greeted him when he arrived, looking as pale and tired as ever, and much to Harry’s surprise wearing a simple blouse and jeans, something he never thought he’d see her in. She showed him around the house before retreating to the living room where she was sorting through some papers, telling him that Malfoy was in his room, and that he should make himself comfortable in the his bedroom. Harry thanked her, and did as she suggested, unpacking, and quickly Flooing Ron and Ginny before lying down, hoping for a decent night’s sleep, not only so he would have all the energy he needed for next day to face Malfoy, but because he would have felt extremely embarrassed if he had woken up screaming from his nightmares like he did sometimes. Then again, a simple muffliato charm should do for the latter.

Next day he woke up feeling surprisingly fresh and well-rested, that didn't mean he was ready to study Potions. With Malfoy. In France. When he could have been at home, spending time with his friends, or just enjoying his freedom.

But then he reminded himself he needed this to get the job he wanted, so gritting his teeth, he headed downstairs to where Narcissa said the lab was, where his old nemesis was already waiting for him.

"Malfoy" he greeted him, sitting down at the table looking around. The walls were filled with shelves of books and tiny bottles, each of them full of liquids of different colours, labelled neatly. The work space however, was empty except for two cauldrons and a copy of a simple Potions schoolbook. Harry's eyes shifted towards Malfoy, who looked pretty much the same as he did the last time Harry saw him, apart from his white-blonde hair being longer, the strands escaping his elegant hair. He also seemed much thinner, Harry noticed, he must have lost at least 20 pounds, it made the boy's features much sharper and angled than they were before.

"Potter." he nodded, restraining himself from scowling, sitting down opposite to Harry. "So, I’ve heard the Chosen One may not be as perfect as everyone thought so. Problems with Potions? Seriously?"

"Shut up Malfoy!" Harry snapped. He wasn’t expecting any different, but it still angered him that the other boy was already getting under his skin.

"Whatever, Potter." Malfoy shrugged. "But then don’t expect to get anything better than a D." He smirked.

"Fine." Harry said angrily.  "Just shut up about other things and let’s get on with it.  I get it, I won’t pass the stupid exam without the help of perfect Draco Malfoy, who is the best Ministry-recommended tutor in the whole Wizarding world, but we’d make better progress if you actually started explaining things" he snarled.

For a moment Harry thought this would be the end, and Malfoy would stalk out, but after glaring at each other, the blonde broke the eye contact and opened the course book without any further ado, and started explaining everything, starting from the very basics. Harry soon found, that even though he would never admit it to anyone else, Malfoy was a good teacher. He cleared up some things Harry previously didn't understand; and apart from the snarky comments, he was almost patient. Well he did snap and start shouting and swearing when Harry messed up a potion even after trying several times, but still. He was way better than what Harry had expected.

Soon they developed a daily routine which consisted of going down to have breakfast on their own, avoiding each other; having a short, theoretical lesson in the morning; having lunch on their own; a longer practical lesson in the afternoon; spending time on their own; then having dinner on their own, except for when Narcissa insisted that they should sit together, which usually resulted in glares and uncomfortable silences.

But Harry was definitely improving at potions, and after all, that was what mattered. As two weeks passed, and October was drawing nearer, Harry found himself tired of arguing with Malfoy, and the other boy must have felt the same way, because all of a sudden the nasty remarks were gone, and they were actually capable of spending time in one room without wanting to kill one another. This definitely was an improvement. Malfoy would actually compliment him if he did something right, and Harry would smile at him. They didn’t try so hard to avoid each other in the time between the lessons, but actually greeted each other, and sometimes even stopped to have short conversations. Nothing too serious or deep, only little things, but this was already much better, Harry realised that Malfoy’s company was actually quite alright sometimes, now that they weren’t constantly arguing.

Weeks passed, and Harry was getting used to living there, and as now he felt more comfortable around the Malfoys, he decided it was time to change some things. He started going for walks around the town and the countryside. He spent a bit more time with Malfoy, they stayed in the lab every so often after the lessons and just talked. One evening Harry even asked Narcissa if he could cook something. They have been eating takeaway pretty much everyday, and Harry didn’t mind it, but after over a month, he had to admit it, it was getting a little repeatable, and he was craving a home-made meal.

Narcissa was surprised, but happy to let Harry work in the kitchen, so after making a quick supply run to the shop around the corner to get all the ingredients he needed for the curry, his favourite dish, he occupied the kitchen.

As he started heating the oil and chopping up the onions, the unmistakable smell of cooking filled his nose, he realised how much he missed it. Cooking was one of those things the Dursleys made him do, but he didn’t really mind it when he was making food for himself or his friends, and after seven years at Hogwarts without cooking, he enjoyed experimenting with all kinds of recipes that he learned from Muggle cook books.

He had started dicing the meat when he grew aware of someone watching him. As he looked up, he saw Malfoy standing in the doorway, watching him.

"You know, it’s not too polite to stare" he said, smirking at the boy. "And do try to be more secretive if you want to look at me." He added, grinning as he saw Malfoy blush, which was definitely something he hadn’t expected to see. Ever. But now that he did, he couldn't stop laughing, making the blonde boy blush even harder, his normally pale face was a deep shade of red. "You should see your face now!" he choked out, holding onto the counter as he tried to calm down, suppressing the laughter that was bubbling in his stomach. Malfoy just stood by the door, glaring at him, his face still flushed. "I’m just messing with you, no need to plan my death" he said with a shy grin as he finally stopped laughing, and went back to chopping the meat, but still keeping one eye on the other boy.

"I wasn’t. I never did. Plan your death, I mean." Malfoy said quietly. Harry looked up and saw that the boy's face was serious. Harry swallowed thickly and nodded, not knowing what to say, so he just kept staring at him, green eyes locked onto the pair of grey ones.

"So, do you want me to show you how to cook?" Harry broke the silence, moving to one side so Malfoy had his space at the counter, offering the boy a little smile. The blonde boy hesitated, running one hand through his hair, and chewing on his bottom lip, which caught Harry’s attention for some reason, he couldn’t explain, he looked away embarrassed, afraid of being caught staring. Malfoy made his way over to the counter. Harry carried on cutting up the meat, giving the other boy smaller tasks, explaining why he did things the way he did, and within half an hour the spicy scent of the simmering curry was filling the room. After tidying up, Harry sat down on one of the chairs, fanning himself with a piece of newspaper that was laying on the dining table, his gaze fluttering to the other boy, who was pouring himself a glass of water, before leaning back onto the counter, flushed, but this time from the heat of the cooking, the top two buttons of his shirt undone, his hair messy and curly from the vapour, making the lines of his face look softer. Harry didn't even know why he thought of that, shaking his head, he stood up, and started setting the table.

"So where did you learn how to cook?" Malfoy asked him, his tone genuinely curious, something Harry still wasn’t completely used to.

"The Dursleys, you know, my foster parents made me cook for them, so I had to, but I actually always enjoyed it a bit." He shrugged.

"They made you cook for them?" Malfoy asked, sounding horrified.

"That wasn’t the worst part. I had to do all the cleaning too, I could never go anywhere. I had to pretend that I didn’t exist whenever they had guests over, and I lived in the broom closet until I was eleven."

"You lived in the broom closet?!" The blonde boy echoed, his voice raised. Harry nodded.  "That’s even worse than how we used to treat our house-elves. At least they had proper bedrooms."

Harry just shrugged again, and went to serve the dinner without a word, he didn’t understand why Malfoy was so shocked by how the Dursleys have treated him, or why he cared at all. Dinner passed quietly, apart from Narcissa complimenting Harry on the curry, but otherwise they ate in a silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, it was just strange. He noticed Malfoy looking at him few times, but he always looked away when Harry caught him staring. When they finished eating, Harry did the washing up by magic, not wanting to spend the rest of the evening scrubbing pans, something Draco watched almost in awe, telling Harry his wand was taken by the Ministry, and how he missed using magic, how strange doing everything manually was.

They carried on talking, and walked up the stairs together, but when they stopped on the landing, instead of parting ways, Malfoy asked Harry whether he could explain Muggle technology to him, and Harry was happy to do that, so he followed the other boy into his bedroom. He was surprised to see that the room wasn’t much different from the one he was staying in, except for having more books and other bits of things. But the walls were plain white, the bed wasn’t the posh four-poster he was expecting, and wasn’t covered in Slytherin green sheets with silver lining. It was just a simple bedroom.

"What were you expecting, Potter?" Draco smirked, and Harry realised he must have been staring in shock.  "This isn’t Malfoy Manor."

"I don’t know. I just thought it would be more like you."

"More like me? And what’s that like?"

"Well definitely not this" Harry said, gesturing around the room.

"Oh and you know me so well that you are positive that I loved Malfoy Manor and now couldn’t stand living somewhere that wasn’t green and grey and silver and black and full of snake-patterns" Draco snorted.

"That’s not what I… oh never mind" Harry rolled his eyes, already feeling irritated with Malfoy, but also himself for thinking that they could actually spend time together properly, without things like this. He was on the verge of walking back to his own bedroom, when he noticed that Malfoy wasn’t glaring at him, he was smirking. Harry sighed, and flopped down onto the bed next to the boy, and started telling him how toasters and TVs and computers worked. He actually enjoyed it more than he thought he would, and he was surprised to see that Malfoy wasn’t being difficult, but genuinely curious and interested, and would listen to Harry’s explanations without interrupting, only showering him with questions afterwards, a fascinated smile spreading over his face, Harry thought that Malfoy was much nicer this way, smiling, friendly, patient and interested in almost a childlike way.

They made this a regular thing, often making breakfast or dinner together, and spending hours before going to sleep talking about Muggle things, and sometimes bringing up other topics as well, and Harry realised he was starting to enjoy Malfoy’s company.

Harry was also improving in Potions, he was now able to make quite a lot of decent ones, and Malfoy was almost proud of him. However then he accidentally burned the cauldron down, causing the blonde boy to give him silent treatment and avoid him after yelling at him about being irresponsible and hopeless.

But after a day of ignoring each other they called truce, and went back to doing things together. This was when Harry realised actually how much time they spent together, and how he talked to Ron or Hermione and Ginny less and less, calling the girls late that evening, feeling guilty. Hermione told him about the lessons, and asked him questions about potions, she was happy with his progress, reminding him again how important it was, and that he needed to carry on. She then left Harry to talk to Ginny privately. They talked about school mostly, and how they missed each other, and how Harry had to go home for Christmas, because Ginny couldn’t go any longer without talking to him properly, face to face, or kissing him, or touching him, and before saying goodbye, Ginny pulled her shirt up, teasing Harry, saying all kinds of dirty words she could think of, leaving the boy with a hard-on. He was too embarrassed to wank, being separated from Malfoy by only one thin wall.

He kept thinking about Ginny, even though he didn’t call her for some time, thinking how things would be when they both got back home. Will they get married straight away? Will they have kids? And if yes, how many? He missed her, a lot, but he had to admit, these thoughts were scaring him slightly. He knew Ron and Hermione were planning on getting married and moving in together when Hermione graduated, but Harry wasn’t sure if he could imagine himself settling down already and becoming a father.

In the end he found himself in the lab, as he did quite often for some time now, deciding it was the best time to practice, trying to make some dreamless sleep for himself, but failing, which meant he could only hope for a decent night’s sleep without nightmares, even though he knew it was unlikely.

He did seem to have less nightmares than before, but now when he did, they were the worst ever, and he would wake up screaming, and couldn’t go back to sleep properly afterwards, and would be stressed and irritable all day. He just really hoped Malfoy never heard him screaming, embarrassed even by the thought of it. One night he felt two unfamiliar firm hands shaking him awake, and a voice, unsure yet steady telling him to breathe, and how it only had been a dream, and finally when Harry was calm enough, handing him a vial of dreamless sleep, he thought he never could have been more thankful, even though he was indeed extremely embarrassed.

Malfoy gave him dreamless sleep and that was all that mattered, because he slept until 1 PM next day, and when he woke up, he feels much better than other mornings, except for the sadness and anger that lingered from the nightmare, but he was used to that. He didn’t even want to get up from bed, he wanted to just stay there and disappear, somehow slip into nonexistence. It was mostly on the days after his nightmares, but sometimes even on just ordinary days, that he thought of what it would have been like to stay dead. He knew some people would have missed him, but with the Horcrux in him destroyed, the world didn’t need him anymore. And it wasn’t bad, it didn’t hurt at all, Sirius had been right, he didn’t feel anything. It didn’t really feel like being dead. It didn’t feel like anything to be honest. But he came back, even though he wasn’t sure he should have.

He decided to go and tell Malfoy that he wasn’t in the mood to study, but he didn’t find the boy in his bedroom or the lab or anywhere else. Or at least anywhere he was expecting to find him, he realised why as he entered the kitchen, there stood Malfoy he was cooking something by the stove, it smelt amazing. The smell of cinnamon mixed with apples and something sweet filled Harry's nose.

"Hi." he said quietly, stopping in the doorway.

"Hey," Malfoy looked up to greet him. "You look like shit" he informed him. Harry snorted. He didn’t need Malfoy to tell him that. He felt like shit.  "I’m making you food. Sit."

"What?  Harry looked up at him, shocked, unsure if he heard him right. Malfoy was making him breakfast. Malfoy. For him. How did this even happen? And why?

"Can’t you ever do just one thing you’re asked for?" The blonde boy asked, rolling his eyes. "Are you really that much of a rebel?" He asked, as he watched Harry sit down, still dazed, he smiled. His voice was softer than the usual, and Harry couldn't understand why. He continued to stare at the blonde boy in complete shock, until the latter lets out a soft chuckle, and told him to stop staring at him with his mouth open. Harry felt his cheeks grow warm in embarrassment, and he mumbled something Malfoy couldn't quite make sense of. Harry dropped his gaze to the table, and toyed with the spoon. He runhis hand through his hair which was messier than usual, he didn’t even try to comb it as he was planning to go back to bed. He felt Malfoy's eyes on him. Harry turned his head to meet the blonde boy's gaze just as Malfoy turned away.

Malfoy sat down opposite to Harry, handing him his breakfast and a cup of coffee, he himself only drinking tea.

They sat in silence, the blonde watching Harry eat.

"We don’t have to study today" he said, breaking the silence. Harry just nodded, still confused by the boy’s kindness, and carried on eating.  As he finished, he watched Malfoy sipping his tea, gazing out of the window. He looked different, Harry thought, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on the difference, the only thing he noticed was that his hair was messier than usual. That couldn’t have made such a big difference, it was more than that. It was something about his whole face, all of his features. But mostly his eyes. His eyes were definitely different, no longer cold and distant, but almost soft. Harry watched his eyes fixed on the garden outside, the shape of the window reflected in the sliver greyness. The practically white eyelashes around his eyes. His pale, porcelain-like skin. The pointiness of his nose. The pinkness of his lips, that for once weren’t frowning. His perfect jawline. The way his shoulder length hair fell onto his shoulders. Harry thought he was beautiful. He felt weird had just thought that, but as he continued to look at the boy, he couldn’t help but admit it. He also couldn't help but notice how his heart was hammering in his chest. He tore his gaze away from the boy and looked back down at the table. What was wrong with him? Why was he finding Malfoy attractive? He swallowed hard, allowing himself another glance at the boy. He noticed the longing in his eyes, the sadness on his face, and he realised, Malfoy must be missing being outdoors. Of course he must miss being outside! He had been in the house arrest for over a year.

Harry couldn't stop thinking how terrible it must be, not being able to go out, and within a minute the idea pops in his mind. He stood up abruptly and told Malfoy he’d be back in a sec. He rushed up to the bedroom and called Kingsley on the Floo, begging him to allow Malfoy leave the house with him, explaining what a great teacher he was, and telling the Minister that he trusted him. He didn’t actually realise all of this before he said it out loud, but it was true. He trusted Malfoy, especially after he gave Harry dreamless sleep and made him breakfast. He deserved something good. Harry was really pleased with himself when Kingsley permitted him to open the doors and go somewhere with Malfoy. He had to make him a promise that he’d look out for the blonde and would be careful, which Harry promised he would. He quickly packed few things and rushed back down to the kitchen.

Malfoy looked up startled as Harry re-entered the kitchen, his expression soon turning to shock, as Harry told him to get up because they were going out.

"What do you mean ‘out’?" He asked, looking at Harry in confusion.

"I talked to Kingsley" Harry shrugged, as if it was nothing, already making his way to the door, unlocking it, and casting several counter spells that would let Draco out as well. The blonde boy followed him, still shocked and surprised, but as he stepped outside and inhaled the fresh air and felt the breeze tug at his hair, he just closed his eyes and let a smile spread across his face. Gosh, how he had missed this. Harry stood looking at him, smiling, thinking how gorgeous Malfoy looked with the strands of blonde hair flowing around his face. No. He wasn’t gorgeous, Harry thought, feeling angry with himself, feeling like his thoughts were betraying him.

"There’s a beach a few miles from here" Draco spoke up.

"Are you suggesting we go there?" Harry asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"thought that was obvious" Draco smirked, and Harry grinned at him as they set off. They walked in silence, until Draco spoke again.  "Thanks. For taking me out." He said quietly. Harry looked up at him.  "And everything" the boy carried on.  "Testifying for my mother. Saving my life in that room."

Harry didn’t say anything for a few moments. The situation was so strange, Malfoy sounded so honest and so vulnerable, and he just didn’t quite know what to say.

"I did what I thought had to be done." He said in the end.  "And… I never thought you deserved Azkaban." He added after a pause, avoiding Malfoy’s eyes. "You saved me too, at the Manor."

"I should have done more" the blonde boy whispered.  "I was a coward. I still am. I should have helped." The words spilled out of Draco, no louder than the wind whistling in their ears, and if Harry hadn’t seen his lips moving, he wouldn’t have believed that he heard what he heard. He watched the boy’s face, noticing the way his eyes were shining, tears flooding them. "I deserved all they planned for me at the trial. You should have left me there, but I guess you can’t stop yourself from saving people’s lives, even if you hate them." He said, a sad smile on his face, Harry found it heart wrenching. He swallowed thickly, once again lost for words. He wanted to tell him that it wasn’t true, that he didn’t deserve to be punished, that he didn’t hate him. He wanted to squeeze his hand and tell him it was okay. But he didn’t, instead he kept quiet, and carried on walking.

Neither of them said anything on the rest of the way to the beach. It was quite a long walk, they both stopped to catch their breaths as they arrived at the end of the cliff from where the carved steps led down to the beach. Harry had been going out for strolls around the area, but he felt a little exhausted after the walk, and Draco, who had been indoors for ages was clutching his side, but it was definitely worth it.

The view was beautiful, the sun was just starting to set, tainting the sky pink and orange, the warm light reflecting on the surface of the water, the white cliffs and the pale sand on the shore making the picture perfect. It was breezy, but not too much, just enough to ripple the surface of the ocean and to catch in their hair.

They made their way down to the beach, Harry spread out the blankets he brought with him, before sitting down, Malfoy following him, they sat down, watching the sky together.

"I miss Sirius." Harry suddenly blurted out, not even knowing why he said it, regretting it immediately.

"Your godfather?" Malfoy asked, not looking at him, messing around with a stick he found in the sand. Harry nodded, and lied back on the blanket.

"He and Remus were the only people who made me feel like-" He took sharp intake of breath. "-like I still had a piece of my parents with me" he sighed. He didn’t know why he was telling Malfoy this, but he couldn't stop himself. As the blonde boy seemed genuinely curious, Harry carried on talking, telling him about third year, how he met Sirius, and about Peter Pettigrew, and the Marauders Map, and about the Order of the Phoenix, and everything Sirius told him about his parents. Malfoy listened intensely, asking questions every so often, being very careful not to cross the boundaries.

"I’m sorry they aren’t around anymore." Malfoy simply said when Harry stopped talking. He tilted his head to the side, looking at Malfoy’s face, studying his expression, but he couldn't see anything except for honesty and sadness, and something slightly even like an affection. He felt like crying, but he didn't want to cry in front of the other boy. He knew he should feel angry, after all if Malfoy hadn’t let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, if his father hadn’t been there at the Department of Mysteries, Sirius and Remus could still be have been alive, but that’s too many ‘if’s. Harry thought of asking Malfoy what his intentions actually were, or something, but he chose to keep silent.

"I’m going swimming" he announced after laying around for a while, he stood up, already taking his shirt off.

"Are you crazy? It must be minus twenty down there°C!" Draco exclaimed, sitting up.

"Yeah, sure, minus two hundred." Harry chuckled. "Chill Malfoy ." Harry rolled his eyes, shucking his jeans as well, making his way to the water, ignoring the feeling of the other boy’s eyes on him.

"Come back here you prat, I don't fancy being framed for your death. It’s dark and it’s cold and you will drown. We can come back here tomorrow and then you can do whatever you want." Malfoy called after him, making Harry laugh.

"If you are so worried about me, come with me" he snorted, stepping into the water, leaning down and splashing it over his body, before carrying on walking deeper into the water. He was in knee-deep when Malfoy caught up with him, stopping at the side of the water. Harry went in even deeper, looking back and shooting a grin at Malfoy. "You better take that shirt off if you want to rescue me when I drown."

The blonde boy just stood there shaking his head as Harry carried on, the water was now up to his shoulders. He couldn't help but laugh as he looked at the fully clothed Malfoy standing on the beach, and suddenly an idea crossed his mind. What if he faked drowning? Would Malfoy really rush to rescue him? He grinned in anticipation, before going in a bit deeper, and pretending to drown, yelling for help, and sure enough, the blonde was there beside him within seconds, his hands around Harry’s waist.

"You idiot" Malfoy said angrily, letting go of Harry when the brunette burst out laughing.

"And you said I’m the one with a saving people's lives-problem." Harry choked out, still shaking from laughter, clutching his stomach with his arms.

"You’re such an imbecile! We could have both lost our footing! I thought you were really drowning." he sneered, and splashed Harry with water. The other boy splashed him back immediately, still laughing, and soon enough Draco was laughing too. They were splashing each other madly, trying to get away from one another, making their way to the beach.

"Scared?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow as they reached the dry land, still breathless from laughing, clutching each other.

"You wish."  Draco smirked, and chased Harry back to the blankets, ending up on top of Harry, kneeling between the boy’s legs, holding his hands down above his head. "Feeling defeated, Potter? Did I just defeat the Great Harry Potter?

"As if I’d let you." Harry said, wrapping his legs around Malfoy's waist. He knocked the boy over, straddling him, with a triumphant grin, which died down as soon as their eyes met. Until now, Harry didn’t quite realise how close they were, only a few inches between their faces. He was starting to feel uncomfortable, and dropped his gaze, but if anything, this made things worse, as he found himself staring at Malfoy’s chest, his white shirt sticking to his body, the wetness making it almost see-through, the boy’s lean muscles and his hardened nipples visible to Harry, making him blush. What was wrong with him? It was the third time that day that he found the boy extremely attractive.

"Potter…" Malfoy spoke up, sounding a little embarrassed, as he shifted underneath him. Harry didn't get it for a moment, but then he realises he had an unmistakable hardness in his pants, and it was pressing right into the blonde boy’s thigh.

"Shit, I’m sorry, I just…" he stammered, as he stood up as fast as he could.

"Stop, it’s okay. It’s a normal reaction, I guess, I mean you’ve been away from your girlfriend, and…" Malfoy trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, avoiding looking at Harry, who was also avoiding looking anywhere near the other boy.  "Let’s go home. Or do you want me to go and you can just stay here, think of your lovely girlfriend, jerk off, and meet me back at the house" Draco said, picking their stuff up, his words making Harry blush even harder.

"I’m… I’ll be alright" Harry managed to say. Malfoy snorts.

"For Merlin’s sake, just stay here, and follow me back when you-" "fuck, just take care of yourself, Potter!" With that said, Malfoy was already turning his back to Harry.

"You are wet. You’ll catch a cold." Harry said desperately, not wanting to make this situation any awkward, which he probably was doing anyway.

"Well then cast a drying charm on me, will you?!" Malfoy looked angry. Why was he like that? He was sneering at Harry, Harry felt like they were back at Hogwarts and Malfoy was about to make one of his snarky comments that always boiled Harry's blood. "You are the one with a wand, you arse!" He rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "if you are so concerned about my health then do it." he snapped, and Harry obeyed. As soon as he did, the blonde haired boy turned around and left in a rush without saying another word. What was wrong with him? Why did he get so pricky about all of this?!

He left Harry there on the beach. On his own. With a bulge in his pants. Still painfully pressing to his trousers.

He tried to think of Ginny, he really did, but he couldn’t help it, his thoughts drifted back to earlier that day, Malfoy’s hair flowing in the breeze, and Harry remembered how much he wanted to run his hands through it. The closeness of the boy made his body shiver, his angular face, his soft silver eyes, his flat yet arousing chest… oh Merlin, he felt like he could melt away just thinking of him, however weird it is, and however guilty he felt about not thinking of Ginny. What the fresh hell?! Malfoy was a boy! Harry wasn't gay for crying out loud! How the hell was he getting of to the thoughts of Malfoy?

The next few days passed in their usual routine, making breakfast together, Potions theory, having lunch together, brewing, making dinner together, and talking about Muggle things until it’s time for bed. Neither of them mentioned the day at the beach, and Harry was thankful for that, but he couldn’t stop thinking back to that very day, and what it felt like to be that close to Malfoy. He kept thinking back, and would often get distracted from doing whatever he was just by looking at Malfoy, or listening the way he talked about Potions, with such enthusiasm, or the excitement on his face when he showed Harry a book on Muggle things and told him how he finally understood how something worked, and it dawned on him, that he was growing more and more attracted to him.

It wasn’t just his looks that made Harry want to press the other boy to the wall and snog him senseless, though he didn’t even try to deny how his soft platinum hair and silver eyes drove him crazy, but it was his whole personality. The way he was nice to Harry now, always, but still kept teasing him, and Harry would tease back, and sometimes it occurred him that it felt almost like they were flirting or something. Or how patient and serious he could be as a teacher. Or how clever and intelligent he was, almost like Hermione, but in a different way. Or how he enjoyed just small things, like walking out into the garden when the sun was shining, or finding a new book among his mother’s belongings that he could read, or a nice meal they made together. How honest he could be sometimes. How passionate he would get if he was talking about something that was important to him. How similar his sense of humour was to Harry’s. He felt like they could be friends, like actual friends, who would stay in contact and have fun together even when they weren’t locked up in a small cottage in France together to study Potions. But real friends. And maybe even more, because Harry wanted to touch him again, to feel his soft skin, or his silky looking hair. Malfoy was driving Harry crazy, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

After another week or so Draco told him that he was doing well enough to pass his NEWTs easily, and they decided to go down to the beach once again, before Christmas. They spent the whole day there, taking a basket of food, they swam, but only a bit because the water was much colder by now, they talked and laughed and talked even more, about school, about their childhoods, about Quidditch, anything they thought of. Harry couldn't imagine his life without the blonde boy by now. He thought of how hard it will be for him to leave this bastard. How hard will it be to say goodbye to all their memories. Forget about all that they have accomplished and of course, about the whole attraction thing. Harry didn't even know if maybe he allowed himself do what his mind, and other parts of his body, told him to do, then would he discover something about himself. He found his mind drifting off to this idea while he stared at the blonde looking up to the sky.

As the sky grew darker, covered in thousands of sparkling spots, bright and shining like diamonds, scattered all over the sheet of the night, they lay back on their blankets, and Malfoy started to point the constellations out to Harry, saving his favourite one, his own one, the dragon for last. His voice proud as he told the boy next to him which one it was, which Harry found adorable, and returned the boy’s smirk with a grin of his own. Their eyes met for longer than they have ever held each other's gaze. It was like looking at the other's soul through them, finally seeing the real version of the person they never got the chance to get to know better. Harry wanted to kiss Malfoy. He wanted to throw his arms around the boy and press their lips together. He didn't. Whether it was because he was scared of what would happen if he did or he was scared of what he would become if he made this move. Harry turned his face towards the ground. The moment was ruined.

Sometime after staying quiet for a while, they started to talk about more serious things, and Malfoy told Harry how he didn’t want to kill Dumbledore, and how he only realised then that his parents were wrong, and how all he wanted before was to make his father proud. How he did everything afterwards just so Voldemort wouldn’t kill his parents. How terrible it was to let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, but how he had no other choice if he wanted his parents to live. What it was like to live at Malfoy Manor with the Dark Lord. How he wanted to just apparate somewhere where no one knew him and there were no expectations he had to live up to, no war, no pain, no suffering. How he felt like a coward but still didn’t do anything.

Harry saw the tears shining on Malfoy's cheeks, in the moonlight, as he got to the end of his story, and without thinking, he wrapped his arm around the boy, pulling him close to himself. Malfoy instantly pulled back as if Harry's touch burned him. He mumbled something about not wanting to be pitied and knowing that he was a coward and a bad person but he wanted to change, and Harry didn’t know what to say, so he just sat there beside him.

Later they lay down on their blankets, and fell asleep next to each other under the starry sky.

When Harry woke up, to the first rays of sunshine stroking his skin, he found himself wrapped around Malfoy's arms, their bodies pressed together. He stayed in those arms for a while, enjoying the warmth that came from Draco's, not Malfoy's, body. Oh how much he wanted to stay here forever and just breath this air, go for long walks, talk to Draco, discover himself, get away from all the stress that England and people there caused him. But he couldn't do it. He felt too obligated to be the man everyone expected him to be. He couldn't just disappear and stay here with the blonde. It would be mad. Besides, he had his friends in England, his girlfriend, probably soon to be wife. He wanted to have a family and a job that he enjoyed, the job that would make him feel more human than just the Savour of Wizarding World. He had to go back home, no matter how much his heart was begging him to stay here and try losing himself in the unknown, something that didn't feel quite possible and normal, in something that was as exciting as scary. Just trying to be happy without all the shit that was going to await for him in London. Harry got up from under the blanket and Draco's arms carefully, making sure he wouldn’t wake the other boy up. He conjured a piece of parchment and a quill, with a deep sigh he started writing a letter. He knew he wasn’t the best with words, especially when they were goodbyes, and writing it all down helped, he could say all the things he could never say face to face. He could thank Draco and promise him he’d talk to Kingsley and find a way for him to come back to England. At least that's what Harry wanted. If he couldn't stay here he wanted to hold on to this unexpected friendship in any way he could. He wrote how he’d wait for Draco, and would want to see him, when he did come back to WIzarding World where Harry would be. Harry realised how much he's going to miss Draco, his smile, his snaky comments, the lessons with him, their midnight or morning walks to the beach, their inside jokes, their conversations, Draco's eyes that at some point became everything Harry could think of, just Draco Malfoy in general, still the same git, but trying to become better.

Harry rolled up his blanket and put it back into the basket along with all of the other scattered bits, and put the letter on top. He looked down  at the boy below him, and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss onto his cheek, feeling the soft skin underneath his lips and smelling the scent he will never be able to get out of his mind, he didn't realise when a warm tear run down his cheek. He shook himself from the trans he was in. Before he got up to his feet and head back to Malfoy's house and then the town to take his Portkey back to London, he took one last look at Draco sleeping peacefully on the beach, Harry once again couldn't breath. If he never again got the chance to see this idiot, he didn't know if he would ever feel understood and complete as much as he did in Draco's presence. He could only hope for the best.

////////////////

Read Chapter Two HERE

[peonyun]

My Journey with KM

(Note: This is going to be a long post about my history with BTS and how I discovered KM!)

So before I go on about my discovery of this pairing, I feel like I should give a little backstory about me and BTS first.

I used to be a casual listener of BTS at first, as did many others. For me, though I am multifandom, I find it hard to focus on all groups at the same time and it’s probably because if I’m into a group, I’d be really into them and I would usually project all my love onto them. So before I got into BTS, I was into another group but I still knew of BTS and its members, and I listened to their music as well.

I knew tae/kook was the most popular pairing at that time and I watched their videos, admired fanart of them and what I’d normally do when I discover a ship. Time passed and my interest for the group I followed at that time dwindled slightly, so you might be able to guess what followed after—I got into BTS.

Now, this is where KM came in. Initially, I was just casually scrolling through videos of them as I previously did when I still wasn’t really into BTS, and then I came across one video. I was intrigued because it seemed different from the other videos on their channel and yes, it’s the video you’re thinking of—G.C.F. in Tokyo.

Never have my life changed because of one video, and you might think I’m being overly dramatic but that’s honestly how I felt at that time. I clicked onto the video and at the start, it seemed pretty normal. Then, I heard Troye Sivan’s ‘There For You’ and I freaked out (mentally, because I was still in school and I was not trying to alert my friends or teachers). As I watched the video, a few things caught my attention:

The lyrics (it was so  L O U D)

The timing of the lyrics + scenes (The rainbow Ferris wheel, “But I made it with you next to me” and “I’m running, running, just to keep my hands on you” with JM on the screen)

How it’s mostly just JM and I’ve been (happily) deceived by the title

The teacup scene + the remaining moments of the video

For the lyrics, prior to watching the video, I already knew that JK thinks the lyrics of a song is of great importance from this post:

(cr. bts-trans)

That was why when I heard the song ‘There For You’, I almost lost my mind because it’s sang by a homosexual man with not so heterosexual lyrics in the context of this video. I watched so many G.C.F. in Tokyo reaction videos and I remember feeling frustrated at how nobody mentioned the lyrics because they were so loud. However, understandably, it could be because they didn’t want to make it seem like it’s about shipping and start arguments in the comment section but it still made me a bit upset then.

As for the timing of the lyrics and the scenes, it just served to emphasise that the lyrics was directed at JM and I was in fact, not crazy for thinking that way. Throughout the video, I was actually still trying to convince myself that I was thinking too much and there was nothing going on but then towards the end of the video, it felt like the mood changed completely. JM was in the teacup and he looked absolutely beautiful even to a non-fan, and then things began to slow down and the lyrics just could not be ignored. The video ended and I felt drained emotionally. I remember my friends looking at me like I grew a second head and that reminds me...I have a fun little story to tell about one of my friends and KM but that’ll be for part two of my journey so stay tuned! Anyway, back to the video.

I watched the video once again, and then twice, and then I lost count.

Every time I watched the video, I could only come to the conclusion that whoever was filming the young man loved him. I wasn’t sure if it was romantic or platonic but I was sure it’s love. That began my research on KM and I scoured the internet for everything KM-related and as I learnt more about them, the more I thought that whatever KM has is special, even when taking into account how BTS has a bond closer than the average group. (by the way, you can see the fruits of my labour in my masterlist here).

All of a sudden, I was hit with all these content and members I didn’t even know much about and I regretted not getting into them earlier when I knew of them. So you could say that KM got me into BTS which I’m grateful for because I probably wouldn’t have known such lovely young men, and I haven’t regretted stanning BTS ever since.

I may never be able to know for sure if they are actually together or if they do have attraction towards each other, but I am satisfied with what I do know—they love each other and their bond is strong and beautiful—and knowing this, I wouldn’t mind following them for as long as they’re willing to take us.

As for why G.C.F. in Tokyo is of such a high significance to me, besides the fact that it’s what got me into KM and BTS in the first place, it’s because if I can’t trust what the many analysis and theories tell me, at the very least I can trust what JK decided to show us, which I concluded was love.

Do watch the video for yourself if you haven’t (you’re honestly missing out on a work of art here) and make your own conclusions!

Well, that wraps up today’s storytelling that nobody asked for!

If you guys would like to discuss, rant or share anything about KM, my inbox will always welcome it! Also, if you’ve read through this long and unnecessary post of mine, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it! (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

[ramheavenandhell]

Rick and Morty Forever and One Hundred Years – Chapter 6: What a Surprise

AN: This chapter is dedicated to AwesomeMango7 because she suggested this idea :) Hope you like it ;) Also: @meaty_drapes on Twitter made precious fanart for this story. I'm still so excited, please take a look at it! Thank you so much again, I really love it *///* Warnings: Rick/Morty, Morty/Jessica, Tricia/Rick, Jealous!Rick and still slow burn

Rick and Morty Forever and One Hundred Years – Chapter 6: What a Surprise It seemed like good fortune was for once on Morty's side after the school dance because on the next school day, he happened to overhear some fantastic news. "So, Jessica. I heard you broke up with Brad again?" The brunet was standing at his locker again and listened in on the conversation that his crush had with her girlfriends. "Yeah, it's over and this time for good." Jessica confirmed that she was indeed single once more. Morty's heart sped up a little at the information. "So, what are you going to do now? Who are you going to date?" Another girl asked excitedly. "Actually, I thought I would go for a boy who's completely different from the guys I dated before. You know someone who I would have not even remotely considered before." The redhead began and Morty's hopes rose with every word, feeling like she was talking about him. "You know, just someone who's really kind and gentle and…" She stopped talking as Morty appeared before the girls, looking as awkward as last week when he had asked her if she wanted to go to the dance with him. The boy blushed, an embarrassed-looking smile on his face as he cleared his throat. It was now or never! The only chance he might ever get in his entire life!!

Morty dashed towards his classroom as if he was trying to aim for a new record. Luckily, he wasn't caught by one of the teachers, who would have scolded him for that. Completely out of breath, he came to a stop in front of his best friend, who again sat lazily on top of his desk instead in his chair. "Wow, Morty! Are you okay?" He asked as looked the panting brunet over. "Were you chased by Brad or one of the other guys that are always bullying you? I told you that you have to stand up to them and fight and not just run off like a coward. They'll never stop if you keep doing that." "No… It's nothing… like that…" Morty interrupted his best friend's lecture, still wheezing. After he finally caught his breath, he continued, his voice full of excitement. "You won't believe what just happened, Rick! Jessica broke up with Brad and I asked her on a date and she actually said yes!!" The yellow-shirted boy was so happy that he felt like he was standing on top of the world. Rick's eyes got almost impossibly wide at the news, disbelieve written all over his face before it was replaced by a not entirely genuine-looking smile, but Morty didn't notice that. "Congrats, Morty!" He congratulated his friend. "See, I knew you would get her one day. Ju-just took her a while to see what a great catch you are." "Yeah, but…" Morty's excitement dimmed for a moment. "…there's just one thing…" Rick was intrigued and lifted one side of his unibrow. "What is it?" "Jessica asked that we turn it into a double date together with her friend Tricia Lange…" "Well, okay. Nothing wrong with that." The blue-haired teen replied, not seeing the problem. "…and you." Morty finished slowly and flinched as if he expected the other to hit him now. "WHAT?!" All eyes in the classroom turned to Rick, so he quickly pulled the brunet out of the room. "You can't really ask me to go on a date with Tricia!" Of course, Morty knew that Rick would hate this suggestion. The spiky-haired teen had dated the ditzy brunette once in the past and it didn't last very long – technically like all of Rick's relationships. He also knew that Rick actually hated her. She might be pretty, but the genius student was bothered by her attitude. Morty honestly didn't understand why Rick had dated her in the first place if he had such a problem with her, but he's never dared to ask him about that. "I know, Rick, but could you please do it? Just this once? Just for one evening?" He begged his best friend. The other male was stoic. "No, Morty. You know, I told you that I stay away from Jessica so you can have her. And I even helped you out to get her. But this is where I draw the line." Of course, Morty knew that Rick had done so many things for him already. And he was so, so grateful for all his help and support in the past and would probably never be able to repay that. But, he really needed his help with this. Just one more time. "Please, Rick." He whimpered, looking like a kicked puppy at the other. "I already told them that it would be okay and I bring you along. Please. Just this once. I'll never ask anything of you ever again. I swear, Rick." Rick tried to keep a straight face, but it was hard to keep it up with how much Morty was begging him, practically ready to fall on his knees in front of him. He sighed and ruffled with one hand through his spikes, hating what he was going to say now. "…Fine." Hazel eyes brightened up. "Really? Oh thank you, Rick! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!!" "You owe me one for this though. Big time." The blunet added and turned his face, trying to hide a blush behind a façade of annoyance. "Of course, Rick. Whatever you want. Thank you so much." The yellow-shirted teen's joy seemed unstoppable now. He happily skipped over to his seat as the school bell rang and Rick less enthusiastically made his way to his own seat. Just what had he gotten himself into? 'It's for Morty.' He told himself. He would probably do anything for the other boy. Even endure one evening together with that dumb bitch…

Both boys could be seen sitting in a fancy French restaurant, one of them looking clearly more hyped about the situation than the other. The duo was currently waiting for their dates since Morty had reserved a table for four. While the brunet had tried to put some effort into his outfit, putting on a yellow button-up shirt – the same one that he had worn when Rick had been invited for dinner – and a nice pair of black dress pants, his friend showed up in simple jeans and white shirt, his leather jacket hanging over the back of his chair. The contrast between them was almost comically. Likewise, their attitudes were the complete opposite. Rick almost looked bored out of his mind, leaning back in his seat, while Morty sat stiffly and fidgeted with his fingers, looking clearly nervous. That flustered behavior was kind of cute. However, the spiky-haired teen grew more and more annoyed with each passing minute. Morty had insisted that they should be early at the restaurant even when Rick had told him that girls are always late and they'd still have plenty of time to wait for them. So, they had been sitting here for almost half an hour, sipping on their water and red wine – because there was no way that Rick would get through this evening completely sober – and doing pretty much nothing else. It was probably odd that they had agreed to meet at the restaurant, but the brunet was glad that Jessica made this proposal because he lacked a ride to pick her up with. There also wasn't enough space on Rick's motorbike. Sure, he could have called a cab, but that on the other hand would have left Rick stuck with picking up Tricia and Morty knew that his friend would have been anything but happy with that. So, they were currently waiting for their dates – well, at least Morty was while Rick was just waiting for the night to be already over – and the brunet's nerves were frazzled. This was his one chance at actually having a date with his crush and he couldn't afford to screw this up… "Cut that out, Morty." Rick said, sounding more annoyed than he intended as he pulled the poor napkin out of the boy's sweaty hands since Morty had started fumbling around with it. "You don't have to be so nervous. It-it'll be fine." The blue-haired teen sighed and sank further back in his chair, grabbing his wine glass and taking another sip. Rick thought that he was probably the one that needed to calm down since he was starting to act like an asshole towards the brunet even though he didn't deserve that. "Aw geez. S-sorry, Rick." Morty mumbled and put his hands in his lap instead, rubbing his sweaty palms against his pants. "You're right. I'm just a little nervous because it's actually my first date." He laughed a little and it sounded as awkward as he felt right now. "You've must been on so many dates already that this is probably normal for you. Geez, I must look like a complete dork or something right now…" "You're not a dork, Morty. And it's okay to be nervous on a date." Rick reassured him. "Even I get still nervous on dates." Morty looked with wide eyes at him. "You do?" "Yeah, I've just learned to hide it better." Well, at the moment Rick was trying to hide his bad mood even though Morty should know very well what he was putting him through…no, actually the brunet could not possibly know that exactly he was putting him through. "Just don't worry so much, okay?" Morty nodded shakily and was so grateful that the other was actually here right now and he didn't had to go through this all on his own. Who knew how much of a mental wreck he'd be if Rick weren't at his side. There wasn't much time to think about it though, as finally the long awaited company arrived. "H-hi, Jessica!" The brunet immediately jumped up from his seat, greeting his crush nervously and like a gentleman, pulled out the chair for her. "Y-yo-you look great!!" "Thank you, Morty." The girl giggled, obviously flattered. She wore a light-blue dress, which fit together with her light-blue hairband and the colors accentuated her hair and eyes. Morty was unable to pay attention to anyone else but her anymore, so he didn't really notice Rick's reaction to meeting his date. The spiky-haired teen didn't even bother standing up from his chair as Tricia greeted him. "Hi, Rick." "Hi…" He muttered to not be a complete ass, but also making sure to let everyone present know that he wasn't happy with this. The brunette didn't seemed fazed by his mood and took a seat next to her friend. In comparison to the girl beside her, her outfit was very provocative, the red top showing enough cleavage that you'd be worried that her tits would jump out at any moment and her dark skirt was also short enough to not leave much to the imagination. However, it didn't attract Rick's attention, whose eyes had drifted over to his best friend. The teen looked like he wanted to make a sarcastic remark about Morty's love-struck face, but bit his tongue to keep it to himself. Moments later, the waiter arrived at the table, asking to take their orders. The entire group agreed on a bottle of red wine, safe for one. "A scotch for me." Rick ordered. The teen ignored his friend's stare as Morty looked at him incredulously. Did Rick seriously have to order something this strong? Well, Morty shouldn't really be surprised that the only way that Rick saw himself getting through this evening was by being drunk. However, that didn't mean that he approved of that. He just hated seeing his friend getting drunk so often. Rick really had a problem with alcohol… Trying not to let that dampen his mood, Morty focused his attention back on his date again. "S-so…um…" He cleared his throat, fighting hard to make light conversation. What are you even supposed to talk about on a date? The weather? Hobbies? "W-what are you i-in-into?" He stuttered. Rick suddenly snorted loudly beside him. "Way to go, Morty! Good start of a conversation to ask for her kinks first." The brunet blushed fiercely. "W-what are y-you saying, Rick! I-I-I didn't mean—I w-was just a-asking about J-Jessica's hobbies!" He realized that he probably formulated that sentence poorly, but the redhead surely understood how he had meant it. Utterly embarrassed, he looked over to his crush, hoping that she hadn't misunderstood him. Damnit! Why did Rick have to do something like that? Sure, blame it on the alcohol, but his friend was supposed to support him here and not act like a complete asshole. Tricia was the one who picked up the conversation. "Oh, I know a few things that you're into, Rick." The way she talked sounded like she was really just trying to make casual conversation and not like she was flirting with him, but from Rick's glare it might as well have been all the same. "Well, I know for sure who I am into and who I am not into!" Oh god! It was just getting worse! Panicking, Morty tried to steer the conversation to a safer topic again. "Uh…so…any TV shows that you're interested in right now, Jessica?" It was probably not the best, but something that the boy figured they could work with. "I-I've just started w-watching Steven Universe. It's pretty g-good." "Oh. Steven Universe was that cartoon show, right?" Jessica asked. Clearly, she had heard of it, but never watched it. That sucked. It would have been a good topic to talk about. "Guess she's too good to be watching cartoons…" Rick muttered not exactly quietly. "…probably more a fan of The Bachelor or some other stupid reality TV show…" "Rick!" The brunet hissed loudly. Just why was he in such a mood right now? Again, the brunette from the other side of the table had to add to the conversation. "Oh, did you guys watch last night's episode. I didn't expect him to give a rose to Veronica…" "Not surprised that you'd watch shit like that." Rick only commented lowly. Despair was written on Morty's face but he sighed in relieve as finally the food was served. Hopefully, the conversation would be limited to a minimum while they were all busy eating. "Another scotch, please." The blue-haired teen ordered before the waiter left. "Actually, make it double." "Rick, I think you-you already had enough to drink." Morty wearily eyed his friend's empty glass. "Thanks Morty, but I decide when I had enough. And I didn't have nearly enough tonight." The brunet looked angry, but when Rick was like that, arguing with him was pointless. In Morty's opinion, the other had had more than enough already, but apparently, nothing was stopping Rick right now. So, forced to give up, the boy turned to his food, only nervously glancing up at Jessica, who thankfully seemed to be still in a good mood. It was mostly silent while the four occupants at the table ate their food, the entire atmosphere kind of awkward or at least it felt like that for Morty. "Th-this…food is really…um…good." Again, he tried to go for some light conversation even though he feared that he might regret it – and he honestly had no idea what he had ordered or what the stuff on his plate even was supposed to be. "How's you-yours, Jessica?" "Oh, it's fine. Thanks." The redhead smiled lightly while digging with her fork around in her salad. Morty smiled encouragingly back. "Tha-that's good." "I'm actually surprised that you've ordered that, Morty." Rick threw in. "Didn't knew you would really eat calf's brain." Face morphing into a grimace, Morty felt his appetite gone from one moment to the other and slowly laid his cutlery down. He wiped his mouth with the napkin, hoping to play it off as being sated by the little that he had eaten already. "Man, I-I'm really full." His best friend broke out in loud laughter, drawing the attention of the other patrons on them. Morty's slightly paled faced was heating up and he tried to make himself as small as he possibly could. God, this was so embarrassing already and Rick didn't make the whole thing any better!! Shyly, he dared to glance over to Jessica to gauge her reaction. Her smile looked a bit strained as she looked over at Rick. However, when their eyes met, it was replace by a soft and far more sincere-looking one. Again, Morty smiled back, glad that he hadn't completed screwed it yet and also a little surprised that she hasn't left already, but was still willing to stay and put up with all of this. "Hmm…this food tastes kind of weird." Of course, Tricia had to comment on her own meal, too, after the blunet had stopped laughing. Morty looked over at how she picked at the meat on her plate and thought, 'At least it's not calf's brain.' Further conversation ceased since Rick didn't bother to comment on his own dish – or grace the brunette with a reply – and everyone continued to eat in silence until they eventually finished. Dessert was ordered shortly afterwards and the spiky-haired boy ordered more to drink, which earned him another disapproving glare from Morty that was blatantly ignored. …or maybe not. "Don't look at me like that, Morty. The guy who claims that he's full after eating three bites and then orders a fucking cake for dessert should really have no right to judge." Morty was gaping, the reply that those two things were completely different sitting on his tongue. However, he wasn't given a chance for an argument to break out. "Hey, Morty. Would you mind if we talked for a little moment? I mean, alone?" Jessica whispered loudly. Cold sweat broke out, but the brunet answered in his stuttering voice, "S-su-sure, Jessica!" and hastily got up from his seat. He followed the redhead away from the table to a slightly more secluded corner of the restaurant and feared for the worse. Would she tell him now that she hated this evening and would never want to go on a date with him ever again? Would she say that she didn't want Morty to talk to her ever again? Sure, she could have said those things to him at the table, too, but maybe she was just trying to be polite about it and didn't want to say it in front of the others. "Morty, this is a really nice restaurant and you're a really nice guy, but…" She smiled as if she tried to lessen the blow, but Morty knew that it was coming now. "…this double date was probably a bad idea. I'm really sorry that I've been asking you to bring Rick along, but Tricia really wanted this and I should have known that after their history, it wouldn't turn out well. So, sorry for making that mistake and kind of ruining this evening for us." Hold on! Jessica was apologizing?! Morty couldn't believe his ears. He blushed and rubbed the back of his head as he laughed his cute little Morty-laugh. "Ha ha! It's not your fault, Jessica. Don't worry about it. I probably should have said something first because I also knew that Rick wouldn't like this and act out…" Neither of the two noticed that they were being watched the whole time. Blue eyes peered right through the aquarium that stood between them and their table and Rick looked anything but pleased as he watch his friend blushing and the two laugh. "Say, Rick. Are you actually dating someone right now? I mean, I noticed that you broke up with Patricia last month, but I haven't seen you with anyone else. You're only hanging out with Morty all the time…" Tricia felt the need for conversation and began to pry. Rick ignored her babbling, having no intention to answer her, but when the duo returned, looking really happy and laughing together, he began to snap. "I've really had it with you! First off, it's none of your business who I'm dating right now. And secondly, I have zero interest in getting back together with you if that's what all of this about! And it clearly is!" To emphasize his point, he slammed the now empty scotch glass on the table, hard enough for it to crack. Morty's eyes widened in shock. If Rick was this drunk, he became dangerous. Less because he was turning violent, but rather because he turned completely unpredictable. His date also seemed to notice that the spiky-haired teen was getting too much out of hand now. "I think it might be better if we leave now, Tricia." The girl thankfully got the cue and both quickly grabbed their things. "It was a really nice evening, Morty…despite this." She looked pointedly at Rick, who sat slouched in his chair and could clearly give less fucks about the fact that the girls were going to leave now. "Maybe we can repeat this another time, but just with the two of us?" "Yeah. Yeah, that would be great, Jessica." Morty smiled at the offer and waved after her as the redhead and her friend left the restaurant. He told the waiter, who walked past him, that he wanted to pay before he sat down in his seat again. Everything was silent between the boys for a moment. While Morty should be elated that Jessica wasn't angry at him and was even willing to give him another chance, he was still upset that this evening had been ruined like this. "Trust me, it's better that they're gone." Rick broke the silence. The brunet didn't answer him. Around a minute later, the waiter showed up with the bill and Morty gulped nervously, not having expected it to be that expensive. While he fumbled with the bank notes in his wallet, Rick suddenly slammed a wad of cash on the table. "Don't swat it. I'll pay for everything. It's the least I can do." 'The least…?!' Morty didn't even know what to say anymore. His best friend had ruined this entire date instead of being supportive and backing him up and he thought, it would be all good again if he paid?! He was so angry right now. And even more he was hurt that Rick had betrayed him like this – because that's exactly what it was in Morty's eyes. They grabbed their things and also exited the establishment, the night air outside a little chilly. "C'mon, Morty. I-I'll drive you home." Rick offered, not even trying to hide that light slur in his speech. This was the last straw for the brunet and he whipped around, shouting angrily. "I will walk home, Rick! How can you even expect me to want to drive home with you when you're this drunk?! You-you-you're such an alcoholic asshole, who doesn't really care about anyone, but yourself! And your mom was right when she said that you're a good for nothing!!" The moment those last words left his mouth, he instantly regretted it. That was a low blow and he knew that he went too far with that. Rick's shocked gaze was more than enough proof right now. Still, he felt too angry to apologize for it and instead turned around to walk off. He didn't turn around again or added anything to it and Rick didn't try to stop him either. The spiky-haired teen only watched after his retreating friend, shock from the harsh words that had been thrown at him still written on his face. "FUCK!" As soon as Morty was out of hearing range, he yelled and kicked a trashcan hard enough to leave a noticeable dent in it. "Stupid Jessica!"

While Morty was on his long way home, his head slowly cooled down again and he began to reflect on the evening and his own reaction towards Rick. Thinking about it at all made him realized that this whole situation was no one's but his own fault. He shouldn't even be angry at Rick for being himself. This outcome should have been obvious to him right from the start. Even Jessica realized that it had been a stupid idea to force Rick on a date with Tricia. It was bound to blow up, so the only person he should actually be upset with right now is himself. Morty decided that he would apologize to Rick tomorrow at school.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11